








I 











w 

- /. 


'•V. 




I I 





\ 


- ’ l».*» • 
^4 


‘ . J 



i’ • I 

f 


/ 

• • ' * 

• ,. . #• 





















’ 9^ 






■ * 






if 










From The Elmwood Messenger (Elmwood, Illinois), March 15. 

An Imposition on Printers. —Readers of the daily papers will see short no¬ 
tices in the Congressional reports of a movement by the type founders of the United 
States to increase the import duty on type, and protestations of printers by peti¬ 
tion and otherwise against tbe imposition. During the war the price of printers’ 
type increased to an unreasonable extent, on account of a high tarift’imposed upon the 
foreign type made in France and Great Britain. With little alteration the high prices 
have prevailed till now. In the new tariff bill now before Congress a combination 
of type founders, eight or ten in all, have the presumption to propose to put a duty 
of fifteen cents per pound on news and book type, and thirty cents per pound on 
job and fancy type. And this is called ‘‘protecting home industry!” Ten type 
founders are to be permitted to swindle, by outrageous prices, the seventy-five 
thousand printers of the United States, that the “ industry” of the ten may fatten 
on the industry of the thousands ! The press of the United States is powerful 
enough to put its foot upon this barefaced fraud, if it will, and that power which is 
so often used for public good and public honesty, has only to say the word, and no 
Congress will have the temerity to disregard its wishes. 

To give the public an idea of prices now and prices before the war, we quote 
from Johnson’s (Philadelphia) price list of 1855, and the Cincinnati Type Foundry 
list received a few days ago ; the lines below show two varieties of ty^ie, with prices 
per pound : 

1855. 1878. 

English Type.32 cts. 52 cts. 

Pica Fancy Type.90 cts. 1.10 cts. 

The tariff at present is not altogether prohibitory, but should the proposed advance 
be confirmed, prices would go still higher than at present, and the thousands of 
hard-working printers throughout the country who are struggling away with type 
worn to the bone, as it were, on account of the present high prices, would be en¬ 
tirely at the mercy of the greedy, rapacious few, and might then join the great army 
of tramps, that a few families who purchase lead at ten cents a pound might live in 
luxury on profits running from 500 to 3,200 per cent, on the raw material. 

The poor fools, if they could only see it, might know that if type was only 
cheapened, as it might and, ought to be, their melting pots woidd be overflowed 
with business. Orders from every printing office in the land would flow in. The 
old, worn-out type would be discarded, and the country press be a credit to the 
country, instead of a bungling, ill-favored aflair as at present, arising from a “fet¬ 
tered industry,” which comes from favoring the few at the expense of the many. 


From the Bossier Banner (Bellevue, La.), February 28. 

Congress, in its fight over *the remonetization of silver, seems to have some 
time to devote to the tariff question, and our attention has been attracted to one 
feature, in the proposed remodeling of the latter, in which we, with the great 
army of printers throughout the Union, have a personal interest. It is j^roposed to 
put a duty on the importation of foreign type that virtually amounts to a stoppage 
of their importation, and places the printing fraternity at the mercy of the few 
type foundries in the United States. 

If there is one interest that, more than another, deserves fostering and protec¬ 
tion, it is the press. It is almost as potent in the education of the masses as the 
system of free schools, and the results of its labors are more widely felt than those 
of any other calling. It does a larger amount of free labor for the public good 
than all others condfined. Hence we feel that it is not only an injury to the 
printing fraternity, but to our entire population, to place them in a category differ¬ 
ent from almost every other avocation, and confine them to a single market for the 
purchase of the materials with which to carry on their business. 

We want no duty on type. It will yield no revenue, and will only make the 
dissemination of knowledge more expensive. 





TllK DUTY ON TYPE. 


To the 


ffoiiomhle 


House of Representatives. 


Dear Sir : 

I herewith beg to submit, for your consideration, the opinions of a portion of 
tlie American press upon the important subject of “ Duty upon Type. ” Without 
free trade in Type, the prices of printing, therefore the prices of hooks and papers, 
will be kept up higher than is good for the great reading population of our country. 
The reasons for free trade in Type are obvious—the fewness of the manufacturers 
making combination among them an easy matter. The few persons a protective 
tariff would benefit, to the detriment of the thousands of printers who would be 
obliged to pay the most exorbitant prices, were the foreign article prohibited by a 
high tariff. I further submit for your consideration that any article that is used 
for educational purposes, such as Type, should be admitted free of duty, feeling 
sure that when you consider that cheap —in other words, free trade in Type, means 
cheap books, cheap papers, and the education of the masses, you will use all 
your influence to put this article where it justly belongs, namely, on the free list. ' 

Yours, respectfully, 

J. M. BASSETT, 

President of the Printers^ Committee, 

San Francisco. 


The following Petition and accompanying Circular was mailed to the proprie¬ 
tors of every pa[)er in tlie United States : 





2 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


PETITION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE TARIFF DUTY ON TYPE. 


To the Honorable . 

House of Representatives, 

Washington, D, C. 

Sir ; Yoiir petitioners respectfully request your vote and influence in opposi¬ 
tion to the proposed tariff on foreign manufactured type, for the following reasons : 

First. The proposed tariff places a duty of fifteen cents per pound on plain 
type, equal to from 50 to 75 per cent, ad valorem, and of thirty cents per pound on 
job and advertising type, equal to from 50 to 120 per cent, ad valorem, according to 
size and style of letter. You will perceive that if this duty is imposed it amounts 
to a virtual prohibition of the importation of foreign manufactured type. 

Second. The Government will derive no benefit from the duty on this class of 
material, as the tax is so high as to prevent importation. The present tariff (25 
per cent, ad valorem) is almost prohibitory, as will be seen by the fact that the 
amount of duty paid on imported type for the year ending December 31st, 1877, 
amounted to less than $20,000. 

Third. The total number of type founders in the United States is about twelve, 
employing, all told, about seven hundred persons, the greater number of whom 
are children, receiving but the smallest wages. These tjrpe founders need no pro¬ 
tection. The capital invested is comparatively small. The wages of the few men 
employed are no higher than those of other mechanics. The proprietors have all 
grown wealthy under the protection afforded them at the expense of the printers ; 
they have combined to keep up prices, and competition is unknown among them 
and if the proposed tariff is put on they will advance the prices of their type in pro¬ 
portion, and have printers altogether at their mercy. 

Fourth. We respectfully submit that the tariff duty on type is a tax on educa¬ 
tion and intelligence, and as such works a positive wrong to the country. Cheap 
type means cheap books and cheap newspapers—it means the cheap and universal 
education of the masses. 

Fifth. The tax on type protects twelve men at the expense of twenty thousand 
master j^rinters, each of whom would be benefited and the interests of the whole 
country advanced through the great reduction in the cost of type that would follow 
the removal of the unjust and onerous tax on the foreign manufactured article. 

Sixth. For the above reasons, which we feel you will deem good and sufli- 
cient, we trust you will give the tax on type your earnest consideration, and at the 
proper time have it reduced to a nominal figure, if not entirely removed. 

Name of Paper, . 

Place, . 


State, 


Publisher. 


No. of hands emploijed. 












THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


3 


This Circular was signed by the respective members of the Printing Commit¬ 
tee, embracing all the leading publishers and printers in San Francisco. 


San Francisco, Cal., February 8th, 1878. 

Dear Sirs ; 

We, the undersigned. Publishers and Printers of San Francisco, 
representing the printing interest of the Pacific Coast, ask your immediate aid in a 
matter that is vital to every Printer in the United States, namely, to defeat the 
proposed New Tariff Bill as far as it relates to Type, upon which it is proposed to 
put a duty of fifteen cents per pound on News and Book Type and thirty cents per 
pound on Job and Fancy T}qie, which means prohibition pure and simple, and is 
certainly the result of a “ job” on the part of the Type Ring which must be de¬ 
feated. 

If it had not been for foreign competition, we should be paying the same rates 
7i(nr as were charged prior to 1873, when you will remember a reduction was made 
of 20 per cent, on plain type. If the Type Founders’ Association are successful in 
getting through their Bill, there can be no reasonable doubt but that prices will be 
advanced to the old high rates again, to your and our disadvantage and their gain. 
If they do not contemplate doing this, why are they scheming to get a prohibitory 
duty put on \ Please aid us in this matter by sig^iing the enclosed petitioii and for- 
V'arding the, same to your Representative in Congress without delay, and also by using 
any influence you may have in other ways, and by advocating the abolition of the 
duty upon ty|3e through your paper. If you will unite with us in the matter, we 
have no doubt that we shall be able to have tijpe on the free list before Congress 
closes. As we intend publishing the opinions of the press from all parts of the 
United States on this most important subject, in book form, and send a copy to 
every member of the House of Representatives and Senate, we have to request you 
to forward your paper, with article on this question, to “Printers’ Committee,” 
P. O. Box 1530, San Francisco. 


This petition was signed by thousands of publishers, and forwarded to Con¬ 
gress, while hundreds of notices appeared in the newspapers in all parts of the 
country, a few of which we herewith submit. 










r = • V '-k; , \Y. S' 


f'?; 




* teEN ^ 





>r > 


‘V 


'« v 

w r’" ■' 

*-^s 


■ ' * ^ •- 

Ayr 

^ 

.-« r» V. t 






it ti'H'. 


i| ■•' 


' - 'V ■' 7^ -. ■ .>' •^, , 


♦ . t. 


•/. 1 


■v^rv..vA'<0||^' .IpilS 

::• ■' Ms#''il..,^^ '‘-^^ ..‘H .. ..'^ 


-. 


T 'V i'""' • 

v; s :,< y'<, ’• ‘ .f ' 


f •‘‘’’> ” ri;i';"i-^''-! S^'’’."ilir ^■■'' 'aS ' . ' 




k- • »'. ' - y .IW' -i' i- -fik 

L.'. ,jliJ*‘ -'' ■'.■•, " v, •aj^4.-.' 

•■ ' , *: •■'■ '. ^hi 


[Ij^'jl^’W '<ffl ‘ :* i.' ‘ ■' “ 


.■**i*!> 


L ^-,- 


^‘^'\k 




.it^ 



lf..v>J _ 

if '*>■ V *' , ' ■ J ."'/l.' Uk 


-.IH. v,, ,..ii«;-';«! f- ^}.f ^—'' 

; :i. ’h‘v '^.' *'?',v*‘’‘l- '■'• 

V/S^H''1* ^ ifiM 

■ ■ i. ,■ >, ;'4 ^ ■’. 

^ Xt . Vv - y^'; » ■ '>, . v;L*?-.w--‘ .--1 



PROTEST OF THE PRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 
AGAINST TILE DUTY UPON TYRE. 


From the Cincinnati Price-Current and Commercial Review (Cin¬ 
cinnati, Ohio), February 28,1878. 

Tax on Intelligence. —The most potent argument against a revision of the 
tariff is that it gives an opportunity for class legislation, and creates a revolution in 
business, the extent of which the wisest statesmen are unable to foresee. As a speci¬ 
men of class interests in the new tariff bill Ave will take the article of type. There 
are in the United States twelve type founders, and they are virtually a close com¬ 
bination, having a scale of uniform prices for common plain type. The present 
tariff of 25 per cent, ad valorem is virtually prohibitory, as it gives the American 
manufacturers a profit of 25 per cent, before they begin to meet competition from 
imported type. But the tyjie founders are not satisfied with this, and they have 
obtained the insertion of a clause in the proposed tariff making the duty 15 cents 
per pound on plain type, equal to 50 to 120 per cent, ad valorem. 

Such a tariff would be absolutely prohibitory, and the Government would 
derive no revenue whatever from it; in fact the Government received less than$20,000 
from imported type in 1877, so that the oidy object in increasing the duty is to 
enable twelve wealthy t 3 q)e founders to charge exorbitant profits to the twenty 
thousand printers all over the country. 

The general public have an interest in this matter also, for with cheaper type the 
cost of books, newspapers, periodicals and job printing would be reduced, but with 
an additional duty on type the cost of all these articles would be increased. If any 
change is made, it should be to imt type on the free list, as a matter of public policy 
in promoting the means of education, the diffusion of information and the increase 
of intelligence. 

It would be no hardship to the type founders to make type free of duty, for 
they have a natural protection against foreign competition in the fact that printing 
offices are compelled to buy supplies where they can at any time replenish their 
stock from the same make of type. This operates as a protection against importa¬ 
tions of type, to a certain extent, and probably enough to prevent foreign manufac¬ 
turers from competing successfully with the founders here. 

Congress should see that the Government is not used to build up monopolies 
at the expense of the people, and especially not to give facilities in existing combi¬ 
nations to increase their profits, already too large, by a tax which yields it no rev¬ 
enue, but is oppressive to a much larger industrial interest, and, through that, to 
the public. 


From the New York Evening Post (New York), February 27, 1878. 

The New Tariff.— In the new tariff'bill now before Congress, the former duty 
of twenty-five per centum ad valorem on news type has been changed to fifteen cents 
a pound on news and book type and thirty cents a pound on job and fancy type. 
It is generally believed that the effect of this new duty will be so far to protect 
American type-makers that there will be an absolute prohibition on the imported 
commodity, and type-makers wull be enabled to charge Avhatever they plase. We 
presume the change was prompted by Mr. Wood’s desire to substitute a simple duty 




% 


(> 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


for an ad valorem one, but he has fallen into the same error which afflicted other 
taritt-makers in supposing that specific duties can be conveniently applied to a com¬ 
modity divided into many different degrees of value, like type and sugar. We are 
informed that the Type Founders’ Association ^re actively i)romoting, so far as they 
can, the new duties, which of itself is a good sign that they are not fixed in the in¬ 
terest of the public, of revenue, or of the consumer. In 1873 a reduction of twenty 
per centum was made in the duties on plain type, and there is no good reason 
the same considerations that led to the reduction should not be regarded now. e 
trust that Mr. Wood’s committee will give the subject the attention that it deserves. 


From the Ventura Signal, (San Buenaventura, Cal.), February 16, 

1878. 

Tariff on Type.— The meddlesome theory of protection, which, carried into 
practice, has proven a most outrageous oppression upon the many, and a source of 
revenue only to the few, has never been applied to so bad a purpose as in the realms 
of literature. Men can perhaps afford to pay toll on what they eat and what they 
wear; upon the spoon Avith which the infant is fed, and the nail in the coffin of the 
de?k.d. But their thought should surely pass from one land to another free from the 
tax which is imposed on what they eat and wear. The men who seek to impose a 
tax upon those implements so essential for the spread of thought and intelligence 
throughont the globe are worse enemies of the hnman race than those who, for 
selfish aggrandizement, levy a tax upon the materials which feed and clothe our 
bodies. Those who, by any process of legislation, hinder the spread of knowledge, 
the proceeds of patient thought and profound genius, who make the author in 
America pay tribute to selfish type founders or paper manufacturers, stand in the 
way of civilization, of human progress. Such men are those who are petitioning, 
with some show of success, for an increase of the tariff on type. The government 
which gives to its people the largest opportunities of acquiring knoAAdedge, which 
refuses to extort blackmail from literature, will live. That which imposes a tax 
upon paper, books, or any of the implements of knowledge, deserves to die. The 
church has, in nearly all ages, with a mistaken idea and badly directed zeal, en¬ 
deavored to prevent the spread of what it has been pleased to call heretical opin¬ 
ions, by securing heavy duties upon books and the implements through which they 
are made. Such efforts to fetter the mind cannot be too loudly condemned. Far 
less culpable, hoAvever, are such efforts, prompted, as they are, by fanaticism, than 
those which are suggested by mere greed. Of such a character are those which are 
now being made to place an additional duty upon type. If Scotland, with her clear, 
beautiful t 3 q)e, can illumine the pages of our literature, and make them clearer, and 
enable the publisher to give more papers and better ones for the money, God speed 
Scotland, say we. Down with the tariff on type. There should be no duty to pay 
on air or sunshine, and none on knowledge or thought which are the sunshine of 
the mind. 


From the Newbernian, (Newbern, North Carolina), March 2, 1878. 

The Destructive Tariff Bills.— The legislators of this country have made 
many fatal mistakes on the subject of tariffs. We are in faAmr of free trade under 
any and all circumstances. But if the civilization of the nation is not sufficiently 
advanced to establish free trade, let us not destroy ourselves by pandering to the 
selfishness of a few monopolists, who do not care whether the country lives or dies 
so they make money. We see that the tariff bill, among its other provisions, 
proposes a duty of fifteen cents per pound upon neAvs and book type, and 
thirty cents a pound upon job and fancy type. Of course it is perfectly clear that 
all this is done in the interest of the feAv t 3 q:)e founders in the United States, Avith- 
out considering the consequences to publishers, magazines, newspapers and other 
literary and educational interests. In the meantime let it be understood that there 






THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


7 


are 20,000 printing offices in the nation, employing 200,000 men and women, ab¬ 
solutely dependent upon their work for their bread, and that there are only about 
a dozen type founders, employing not over 700 persons all told. The result of such 
a tariff would be a total prohibition of foreign imports in this department of busi¬ 
ness. The type founders of Europe could not pay such a duty as this and accom¬ 
plish any sales of their productions on this side of the Atlantic. This would give 
the type factories of America, which are at the bottom of this legislation, an oppor¬ 
tunity to form a ring for their own advantage, which they would not be slow to do 
to the detriment of the press and of the people. 

Have we not already had enough of rings and monopolies I Is it possible that 
any man, in his sober senses, can gravely propose such a monstrous measure in 
Congress as this, expecting it to go through ? And is there any member of that 
responsible body so lost to decency and honor, as to give his influence and vote to 
such a flagrant act of injustice and wickedness ? We believe that the ungodly reign 
of selfishness in this country is nearly at an end ; at least, that the unscrupulous 
advocates of such a dynasty will not dare to press such a measure as this upon the 
poverty and suffering of the people. 

If such a measure should become a law, wide-spread ruin would overtake all 
the publishing enterprises of America. Of course, every publisher, whether he 
edits a newspaper, runs a magazine, or furnishes books for the reading public, must 
renew his type. He can no more do with the old material, than he can continue 
with the same suit of clothes, or a single supply of food. And if he is to purchase 
from foundries or rings, who are at liberty to imiDose the most exorbitant prices 
upon him, his financial destruction is simply a question of time. Every one knows 
the wretched patronage already bestowed upon the literary and publishing institu¬ 
tions of the country. The vast majority of men will not feed their brains when 
their stomachs are in difficulty. Books of a solid, useful character cost twice as 
much as they did before the war. This fact, added to the pressing necessities of 
those who would be likely to be the patrons of literature, make the profits of the 
general run of publishing houses very small. But if this is true of the higher 
branches of literary development, what shall be said of the inferior departments ] 

Who can tell, for instance, the pecuniary obstacles which block up the path of 
the ordinary editor in this country. Every description of work in his establishment 
must be paid for in cash. The materials which he uses, his type, his printing, and 
his paper, must be obtained by a prompt surrender of their value in currency. His 
debtors reverse the conduct of his creditors, as a general rule, and pay him in prom¬ 
ises, in good wishes, or in bitter and relentless curses ; in eyerything, in a word, 
but the ready, solid cash. His whole life is a desperate struggle with famine and 
public ingratitude. And now here come these miserable monopolists, these selfish, 
hypocritical, canting type founders, and undertake to contrive a plan to make him 
pay two prices for the necessary stock of his printing office. The thing cannot be 
done. The iniquity of such a scheme is too plain, too wicked and too monstrous, 
to obtain the support of a single decent politician in the land. 


From The Bluffton Chronicle (Indiana), Thursday, February 28,1878. 

Another Ring. —And now it seems the poor printer has to suffer, unless there 
are enough Congressmen who cannot be bought out by the ring formed by the type 
manufacturers of the United States. They are trying to place a tariff’ duty on for¬ 
eign type so that none will be shipped to this country, and they can have the exclus¬ 
ive right of fixing prices to suit themselves. There are only about twelve manu¬ 
facturers in the United States, and they have already become wealthy off’ the 
publishers ; but not content, they must have it so they can rob them if they choose 
to do so. The new tariff bill fixes the duty on news and book type at fifteen cents 
a pound, wdiich is from forty to sixty per cent, ad valorem. The rate on job and 
fancy type is thirty cents a pound, which is from fifty to one hundred and twenty 
per cent, ad valorem. The annual duties collected under the present rate did not 
exceed $20,000. 






8 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


From the Philadelphia Record, Wednesday, February 25, 1878. 

The new Tariff Bill bears with special severity upon new spaper and book pub¬ 
lishers in imposing a duty upon rags and type. The rate of the present tariff is 
twenty-five per cent, ad valorem. The proposed rate is fifteen cents a pound on 
news and book type, and thirty cents a pound on job and fancy type. This is re¬ 
form turned wi’ong side out. It will suit paper-makers and type-founders; but the 
reading public, and those whose business it is to cater to the wants of the reading 
public are as a thousand to one in comparison with the i)ersons to be benefitted, and 
they have some rights which tariff-tinkers are bound to respect. 


From the Weekly Register (Mobile, Ala.), February 26, 1878. 

The Tariff.— We hope that the members of Congress who are honestly intent 
upon having a tariff for revenue, and not simply for protection, Avill see to it that no 
jobs or favoritism will be permitted to creep into the bill now being prepared. To 
illustrate the importance of watching every provision of the bill, we call attention 
to the flagrant disregard of the principle upon which the tariff should rest in the 
case of the proposed duty upon type. The duty now is 25 per cent., which is high 
enough, in all conscience. The proposed duty is 15 cents per pound on news and 
book type, and 30 cents per pound upon job type. This is at the rate of 50 per 
cent, to 75 per cent, on the former, and from 50 per cent, to 120 per cent, upon 
the latter. The present rate yields less than $20,000 to the revenue annually, and 
the proposed rates would probably yield nothing at all. Mr. Wood cannot plead the 
necessity for revenue as an excuse for increasing the rate from two to five fold. So 
much of this bill as relates to type, is ‘‘protection ” pure and simple. And what 
makes matters worse, it is “protection” for the benefit of only a dozen men who 
could survive without any “ protection ” at all. The newspapers of the country 
should demand with one voice the abolition of all duties upon type and printing 
paper; they are assessed in the interest of a few score of manufacturers, and are a 
tax upon millions of readers. 


From the Perry Co. Democrat (New Bloomfield, Pa.) Wednesday, 

February 27, 1878. 

“The tariff has worked wonders for the country .”—Repablican Paper 

When, where, how ! For seventeen years the Republicans have had every 
thing their own way and just whatever tariff they chose to lay upon imports. If a 
high protective tariff is a panacea for all the ills of the trade, why are nearly all our 
manufacturing establishments closed up and hundreds of thousands of their former 
workmen idle? Why are nearly all our industries paralyzed if “ protection,” so 
called, is the vital energy required to infuse life into them ? Have not they had all 
the tariff they wanted ? And if they have not had it high enough, whose fault is it 
but their own ? 

This should not be regarded as a party question, and it is not so regarded in 
the West and South. As long as we have an enormous national debt there must be 
a tariff for revenue; but it should be so graded as not to foster monopoly at the 
expense of the whole country. One branch of business should not be crushed for the 
benefit of another. Why should book and newspaper publishers be compelled to 
pay a duty of 15 cents per pound on one kind of type and 30 cents per pound on 
another kind of type, when half these amounts would bring more money into the 
public treasury? These are items in Fernando Wood’s bill, now before Congress. 
They are there for the especial benefit and behoof of the few type founders in this 
country, who would, if they could, prohibit competion in the sale of type altogether 
to give ihem a monopoly of the business. Publishers have trf)uble enough already 
to make both ends meet Avithout placing further burdens \q)on them. The Type 








THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


9 


Founders’ Association, composed of twelve firms, all told, in tlie whole country, 
employing less than seven hundred persons, asks Congress to tax intelligence and 
crush out the book and newspaper business. 

Verily, none other than a party slave will continue to support a Member of 
Congress who may cast his vote for Wood’s bill to prohibit the importation of 
printers’ type. 


From the Ashtabula News (Ashtabula, Ohio), Thursday, 

February 28, 1878. 

The tendency of all our study of the subject, since we began to study it at all, 
has been to make us understand more clearly a proposition wliich looks as though it 
ought to be self-evident, but which in this country has been longer if not more be¬ 
fogged by interested discussion than any other—viz.; that all ‘ ‘ protection ” by 
tariff is taking money by law from the pockets of some people to put it into the 
pockets of others. The accruing benefits may, in some cases and circumstances— 
or at least in times past might have been—sufficient to justify such action; but the 
people of this country at large have for some years been coming more and more 
plainly to see that the true general principle is, tariff for revenue rather than for 
protection. 

With this view, therefore, even if the subject did not more directly concern us, 
we could not but sympathize with the petitions now in circulation, protesting 
against the very heavy increase of duty on type by the proposed new tariff. Tlie 
printers of California, being perhaps more directl}’^ interested than any others, seem 
to be most active in opposition to the increase; and they urge, among other argu¬ 
ments, that the present tariff of 25 per cent, is so nearly prohibitory that the whole 
revenue to the Government from duty on imported type last year amounted to only 
^20,000; that the proposed increase would make the duty entirely prohibitory, and 
thus enable the twelve type foundries of the United States, already large and pros¬ 
perous, to add enormously to their present high prices, without any benefit to the 
Government revenue whatever, and place all the thousands of printing offices in 
the country at their mercy—“ protecting” twelve men at an expense of more than 
twenty thousand; and that, in short, the proposed increase is purely and solely an 
organized attempt at sj^eculation by the type founders’ monopoly, and an outrage 
which the whole press of the country ought to unitedly condemn. And that’s just 
the way we feel about it, too. 


From The Times (Louisburg, North Carolina), February 28, 1878. 

The type founders of the United States have been making an effort to have an 
amendment in the tariff bill which will prohibit the introduction of foreign manu¬ 
factured type, and give the United States manufacturers a monopoly. This is an 
infamous piece of work and is the handiwork of a “type ring.” There are twelve 
type makers in this country and they will have to supply the demand of 120,000 or 
130,000 printers and will have things in their own hands if this amendment be¬ 
comes a law. We hope the press generally will condemn this iniquitous amend¬ 
ment and that our representatives in Congress will fight it to the death. 


From The Democrat (Bloomfield, Indiana), Wednesday, February, 

27, 1878. 

The tariff schedule reported by the Congressional Committee on Ways and 
Means is particularly oppressive to the profession of printers, and if passed, becom¬ 
ing the law of the land, will not only oppress the printing class of people, but will 
prove a great weight and hindrance to the cause of education, that we, as Ameri- 






10 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


cans, and es})ecially Indianians, pride ourselves upon. Cheap books, cheap paj^ers, 
mean advanced educational facilities, and we must have cheaj^ type from which to 
print cheap liooks and papers. Twenty-five per cent, ad valorem is already oppress¬ 
ive. Better ])ass a law of Congress protecting the producing classes of the Middle 
and Western States, and let these type founders take care of themselves. The 
tariff on type now authorized by law is too great, and to increase it would be an 
outrage highhanded that would act as a tax levied by the government on education. 
Let Congress defeat the measure by cutting down the jiresent tariff on type to ten 
per cent, ad valorem — or wipe out the duty entirely. It ought by all means to be 
done. 


From The Republican (Milan, Missouri), Friday, March 1, 1878. 

The new Tariff Bill now before Congress to fix a duty of 15 cents a pound on 
news and book type is nothing less than an infamous outrage, fraught with supreme 
selfishness and utter disregard for the highest and best interests of education, of 
morals and of religion. It is simply a grasping effort of a few avaricious, crisp- 
conscienced, snide-nosed, no-souled nabobs to tax education, to make knowledge bow 
to ignorance and greed, to worship at the shrine of mammon and do homage to the 
devil ! By this double-dyed, blear-eyed denizen of darkness, every school book in 
the land, every periodical, every newspaper — in short, every vehicle conveying in¬ 
formation through the “ art preservative ” must be taxed—taxed for what ? why to 
protect one dozen rich capitalists from competition ! That is to say, twelve ty 2 )e 
foundries must be supported while 20,000 printing offices must be bled to contribute 
to this unhallowed consummation. And this tax — this high-handed effort to ob¬ 
struct the fountain of knowledge has the contemptible effrontery to knock at the 
doors of our capital for admittance and approval ! That Representative who gives 
his assent to this nefarious measure will be sweetly remembered and duly relegated 
to his home by an outraged constituency never to return. Mind that ! 


From the West Shore (Portland, Oregon), February, 1878. 

The Type Founders’ Ring is making an effort to have Congress pass a prohibi¬ 
tory duty on foreign type. We hope this neat little swindle will be nipped in the 
bud. If passed, it will benefit about a dozen already wealthy type founders at the 
expense of over 20,000 printing offices in the United States. Give the bill a kick so 
as to hurry it to an early and dishonored grave. 


From The Idaho Avalanche (Silver City, Idaho Territory), Saturday, 

March 2, 1878. 

Duty on Type.— The new Tariff Bill recently before Congress embodies a 
proposition placing the duty on news and book type at fifteen cents per pound, 
equivalent to a tariff of from forty to sixty per cent., according to the size of the 
type, with a duty of thirty cents per pound on job and fancy type, equivalent to a 
tariff of from sixty to one hundred per cent. There are some 20,000 printing offices 
in the United States, and they give employment to nearly 130,000 men. The 
number of men employed at all the type foundries is considerably less than 1,000. 
Consequently the proposed increase of duty on type is an effort to benefit the infini- 
tessimal few composing a so-called “ Type Ring, ” not only at the expense of the 
hundreds of fhousands who directly gain their livelihood from printing offices, l)ut 
to the detriment as well of the masses of the people at large who look to the Press 
as their great educator. Instead of increasing the duty on type, which is a tax on 
free education, it ought, in our opinion, to be abolished entirely, and the country 
at large would be the gainer by such a step. In an especial manner would the pro- 









THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


11 


posed imposition be detrimental to the Pacific Coast, and as the scheme bears rob¬ 
bery and fraud on the face of it, it is to be hoped that Congress will view this subject 
in the proper light by stamping out this unjust principle of taxing intelligence. It 
would be a disgrace to the nation to have a baker’s dozen or so of type foundeis 
succeed in a scheme which is calculated to benefit themselves only, while it would 
work incalculable injury to the interests of a business that is doing more to civilize 
the country than all the other agencies combined. Let the prohibitory duty on 
typ® JjO to the wall. 


From .The Enterprise (Wellington, Ohio), Thursday, February 

28, 1878. 

The new Tariff Bill fixes the duty on news and book type at 15 cents a pound 
which is from 40 to 60 per cent, advalorem. The rate is double this on job and 
fancy type, which brings that up to 50 and 120 per cent, ad valorem. The annual 
duties collected under the present rates did not exceed $20,000. A dozen type 
foundries in the United States desire ‘‘protection” from foreign competition, 
though they are making good profits now. A dress of Scotch news type, made of 
hard metal, lasts a third longer than one of the soft American type. The prohibi¬ 
tory tariff would cut off competition, and compel all publishers of this countiy to 
submit to still higher fancy i)rices on a type that demands frequent renewals. 
People who read, have very little appreciation of the constant and expensive outlay 
necessary in the business of printing ; and the Congressional Committee are strik¬ 
ing at the foundations of American intelligence in the oppressive tariff bill, which 
the united protest of the 20,000 printers of this country should avail to influence 
our Congressmen to vote down. 


From The Lynn Record (Lynn, Mass.), March 2, 1878. 

The New Tariff. —-We hope that our members of Congress will oppose the 
amendment to the new tariff in regard to the duty on type. Printers very naturally 
feel that they are now paying type founders a large premium for the “know how,” 
but if the amendment is adopted, our type foundries, having one of the worst 
monopolies in the country, would soon put their prices to such a high figure that no 
poor man coidd ever think of starting a printing office. We have too much faith 
in the Avisdom of Congress to believe that the amendment will pass. Let the duty 
on type be abolished. 


From The Recorder (Rising Sun, Indiana), February 28, 1878. 

Buyers of juvenile and miscellaneous books have observed of late years that 
nearly all the works of this character for sale in our book stores, excepting those of 
a local or national character, are printed in England. This is largely the result of 
the prohibitory duty on plain type, preventing its importation and enabling the 
“type founders’ ring” to charge 100 per cent, above a fair price. In behalf of the 
120,000 printers in America, and the 20,000 employing offices, we demand of our 
representatives and senators in Congress that plain type be put upon the free list. 
The printing business in this country is in a bad condition, and some relief is im¬ 
peratively demanded, and that speedily. 


From the Edwardsburg Argus (Cass County, Mich.), Feb. 21, 1878. 

The Tariff on Type.— The proposed new tariff bill, which, if passed, would 
impose upon news and book type a duty of fifteen cents per pound, and thirty cents 
per pound on job and fancy type, is undoubtedly a “ put-up job ” in the interest of 












12 


THK DllTY ON TYPE. 


the Ty|)e Founders’ Association, and is an imposition to Avhich the 120,000 printers 
of America don’t propose submitting without a jirotest. And their 2 >rotest will be 
oftered, not only on their OAvn behalf, but on belialf of the tens of thousands of 
intelligent men, women and children who constitute the reading, studying and 
thinking public. ^ ^ 

The total number of type founders in the United States is but twelve, and the 
fact that each of the twelve has acquired a competence under the protection here¬ 
tofore afforded them by the GoA^’ernment, is conclusiA’e proof that any higher rates 
of tariff upon their manufactures would be the grossest injustice to their patrons 
and to the public. To state the matter in plain words, the passage of this bill 
woiild simply compel every man who reads a paper, or whose children study school 
books, to pay tribute ” into the coffers of this ring of twelve already AA^ealthy men 
vAuio constitute the American Type Founders’ Association. In the language of the 
petition for the abolition of the tariff on type, Avhich is now being offered to the 
members of Congress, “We respectfully submit that the tariff duty on type is a 
tax on education and intelligence, and as such works a positive wrong to the coun¬ 
try. Cheap type means cheap books and newspapers—it means the cheap and uni¬ 
versal education of the masses. ” 


From the Argus (Van Euren, Arkansas), Thursday, Feb. 28, 1878. 

The proposed change in tha duty on foreign type by AAdiich it is to be greatly 
increased, smells strongly of jobbery. It is uiihiir and unjust. Type should be 
put on the free list. Anything so useful in disseminating general information 
should not be subject to duty. If we can buy imported type from Scotland cheaiier 
than that manufactured at home, so mote it be. Free trade is the doctrine, noAV. 
(Uii manufacturers have been protected long enough. They are full grown noAv 
or never Avill be. o j > 


From the Enterprise (Easthampton, Mass.), March 2, 1878. 

The iieAv tariff noAv before Congress proposes to increase the duty on type so 
much as to make it prohibitory. There are 20,000 printing offices in the United 
States, and only 12 type foundries. Printers have considerable interest in this 
matter, and if the tarili Avere put upas proposed, the type founders’ monopoly would 
again put up their prices, and the consumers suffer. The reA^enue from duty on 
type IS now only about |20,000 a year, and if the proposed bill is passed it will 
pi actically prohibit the importation of any. Shall this scheme for private gain rob the 
whole country of the privilege of buying the best type in the world at a reasonable 
price, and compel all piiblisliers of books and newspapers to buy an inferior Ameri¬ 
can type at a much higher figure ? 


From the Michigan Argus (Ann Arbor, Michigan), Friday, March 

1. 1878. 

In many respects the Wood Tariff bill noAv pending before the House Commit¬ 
tee of Ways and Means is no doubt an improvement upon the present coniidicated 
and burdensome tariff system. But there is certainly chance for still further im¬ 
provement. For instance, the bill imposes a duty of 15 cents a pound on plain or 
body t>qie, and of 30 cents a pound on advertising and job type, equal to a duty of 
from 40 to 100 per cent, ad valurem—and in fact a prohibitory duty, furnishing no 
revenue to the Government, but enabling the limited number of type founders to 
take money out of the pockets of the publishers and employing printers of the land 
and put it 111 their oavii. There are not to exceed a score of type foundries in the 
country, employing less than one thousand persons, and the greater iiortion of that 
number children. In 1877 theie were published in the United States 8 111) peri¬ 
odicals and papers—quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, etc.—and tlie number of 
mploying job printers equaled or exceeded the number of neAvspaper offices. Yet 











THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


13 


these large classes—over 100,000 employing and working printers—and through 
them the public, are to be taxed for the benefit of the small number of type- 
makers, less than 1,000. This is the curse of tariff taxation—robbing the masses 
for the benefit of the few. All prohibitory taxation, all taxation which builds up 
monopolies, should be repudiated, and wo hope that the Ways and Means Commit¬ 
tee of the House will revise Mr. Wood’s bill in this particular. 


Prom the Quitman Reporter (Quitman, Ga.), Thursday, February 

28, 1878. 

Another Monopoly Asked for.— The few type founders in the United 
States ask that Congress put a duty of fifteen cents per pound on all news and book 
type. This is ecpial to about 60 per cent, ad valorem. Under the tariff that now 
exists, the Government collects annually about $20,000. To increase the tariff to 
double would be to cut off entirely this amount of revenue from the Treasury, as it 
would amount to a complete prohibition against foreign type, which would leave 
the very few type founders in the United States—who would no doubt combine at 
once to put prices up to one hundred per cent, above present rates—masters of the 
situation, while the whole country would be robbed of the privilege of buying the 
best type in the world at reasonable prices. This is simply an outrage which, if 
allowed, may cost many of our present Representatives their seats in the Nation’s 
counsels. We advise that i\\Q gentlemen of the press wield a considerable in¬ 

fluence in the land. They had best let this big job die still-born. 


From the Connecticut Catholic (Hartford, Conn.), Saturday, 

March 2, 1878. 

The Type Tariff. —By the proposed tariff, a duty of fifteen cents per pound 
on plain type, and of thirty cents per pound on job and advertising type, is pro¬ 
posed. This is a prohibitory duty, and must have been organized in the interest of 
a few type manufacturers. It is pointed out, in a circular we have received, that 
should this be passed, it will be in the power of a few manufacturers to charge what 
they choose for type. Thus a heavy tax will be laid, first upon all those who use 
type in the first place, and secondly upon the public in general, and all to fill the 
pockets of twelve men ! for that is all the type founders there are. They need no 
protection, only employing a few hundred people, chiefly women and children, and 
pay them small Avages. They grow rich at the expense of printers, and want to 
grow richer. 

A tariff duty on type is a tax on education and intelligence, and works wrong to 
the country. Cheap type means cheap books and newspapers. That there should 
be any tax on type is an outrage, but that thousands of printers should be taxed 
for the benefit of twelve men, shows what jobs are attempted at Washington. 


From the Aurora Advertiser (Bast Aurora, Brie County, N. Y.), 

Friday, March 1, 1878. 

Another Burden. —And now it is the printer who is attacked. Even a type 
founder’s ring is now at work trying to add to the already heavy burden of taxa¬ 
tion. It is a well-known fact to the majority of newspaper readers that type is a 
very expensive material. Yet in spite of the great expense necessary for the pub¬ 
lishing of a newspaper, the public are furnished with them at very low rates. 

It is now proposed by the new Tariff Bill to impose a duty of fifteen cents per 
pound on news tyjie and thirty cents per pound on job type. When it is considered 
tliat type is‘‘heavy as lead,” that it takes a large amount to print a newspaper. 








14 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


and that our news type already costs from sixty cents to one dollar a j)onnd, and 
job type even more, the addition of this new duty would require an increase in the 
price of newspai)ers and job work. It would quite seriously embarrass the publica¬ 
tion of cheap and interesting family reading, and the ultimate end would l^e to the 
detriment of the general mass of people. The newspapers are cheap means of en¬ 
lightening the people, therefore it is not wise to oppress them. We cannot speak 
too strongly against it, and hope our Representatives will use their greatest influ¬ 
ence against it. 


From The Courier (Sunshine, Colorado), Saturday, March 2, 1878. 

The San Francisco press is aroused over a provision in the new tariff bill to tax 
from foreign parts, from fifteen to thirty cents per pound. There is a combi¬ 
nation among the twelve type founders of the United States to keep prices Avay 
above what would be a reasonable return on the comparatively small capital invested 
in their business; and if they succeed in getting such a prohibitory duty imposed, 
there is no telling to what point they would carry their prices. If there is any one 
branch of industry that should be taxed lightly, it is that of printing, as it is through 
cheap books and newspapers that the world is largely indebted for the progress of 
the present day. It is only through the education of the masses that a Republican 
form of government can hope to come to its best estate; and how else is this to be 
accomplished except through the aid of cheap literature ] We therefore hand the 
matter over to the consideration of our representative in Congress, feeling assured 
he will see the importance of nipping this “job” in the bud, and act accordingly. 
He has already had occasion to comi^lain of the high price of Voorhees’ speech in 
pamphlet form; and we hope he will take the necessary step towards preventing the 
cost of such documents being greater in the future. 


From the Riverside Press (Riverside, Louisiana), Thursday, February 

28, 1878. 

A Fraud on Publishers. —We view with much concern and grave apprehen¬ 
sions the efforts now being made before Congress to secure the passage of the jiro- 
posed new tariff bill, so far as it relates to tyjie. Nothing but a stupendous and 
greedy ring could possibly have concocted such a fraud upon the publishers. This 
fraud proposes to put a duty of fifteen and thirty cents per pound on type, which, 
should it become a law, virtually attunes the death song to the progress and the ad¬ 
vancement of many thousands of newspapers in this country. Can Congress afford 
this We think not. It is to the press that the country anxiouslj^ looks for the de¬ 
velopment of her educational, commercial, agricultural, religious and financial in¬ 
terests, and the press of this country expend more money, more energy and more 
brain work to attain these than all other enterprises combined. In Europe many 
of the enlightened and far-seeing governments have wisely taken off all duty on 
type. This country might with great interest to herself imitate these examples. 
We call upon out Representatives in Congress not to allow themselves to be made 
the dupes of a ring composed of ten or twelve type founders and manufacturers in 
this country. 


From The Aroostook Pioneer (Houlton, Maine), Tuesday Morning, 

February 26, 1878. 

More “Protection” Wanted.— The type founders of the United States are 
anxious for an increase of duty on imported type. A reduction of twenty per cent, 
was made in 1873 in the duties on foreign tyiie, since which time the craft have been 
able to keep their newspapers dressed up and their job offices well stocked with 
modern styles. What is now proposed is to place a duty of fifteen cents per pound 










THE DUTY ON TYPE. ]5 


on plain type (eqnal to from fifty to seventy-fiYe per cent, ad valorem), and of thirty 
cents per pound on job and advertising type. If the duty is increased as proj^osed, 
it will prohibit the importation of foreign mannfactnred type, when the Govern¬ 
ment will fail to reap wmj benefit from duties on this class of goods. The present 
tariff (twenty-five per cent, ad valorem) is almost prohibitory, as will be seen by the 
fact that the amonnt of duty paid on imported type for the year ending December 
31st, 1877, amounted to less than $20,000. The total number of typefounders in 
the United States is but twelve, employing, all told, less than seven hundred per¬ 
sons, the greater number of whom are children, receiving but the smallest wages, 
these type founders need no protection. The capital invested is comparatively 
small. The wages of the few men employed are no higher than those of other me¬ 
chanics. The proprietors have all grown wealthy under the protection afforded 
them at the expense of the printers ; they have combined to keep up prices, and 
competition is unknown among them, and if the proposed tariff is put on they will 
advance the prices of their type in proportion, and have printers altogether at their 
mercy. The tariff duty on type is a tax on education and intelligence, and as such 
works a positive wrong to the country. Cheap type means cheap books and cheap 
newspapers ; it means the cheap and universal education of the masses. The tax 
on type protects twelve men at the expense of twenty thousand master printers, 
each of whom would be benefitted, and the interests of the whole country advanced, 
through the great reduction in the cost of type that would follow the removal of the 
unjust and onerous tax on the foreign manufactured article. 


From The Germantown Press (Germantown, Ohio), February 28, 

1878. 

The new tariff bill now before Congress is one of the greatest swindles of the 
age, as relates to the duty on type. The rate proposed being fifteen cents a pound 
on news and book type, and thirty cents a pound on job and fancy type means vir¬ 
tual prohibition. There are less than one dozen type founderies in the United 
States—all combined in one association—and the object of this infamous clause in 
the new tariff bill is to enable them to get still richer at the expense of 20,000 em¬ 
ploying printers, who give work to more than 120,000 men. The Congressman who 
would give his support to so infamous a measure should never afterward receive the 
support of any honest man. 


From the Brainerd Tribune (Brainerd, Minnesota), February 

16, 1878. 

A Tax on Type.— The fact has been recently brought to our attention that the 
Congressional Committee on Ways and Means, in the new tariff schedule recently 
reported to Congress, recommend an advance in the tariff’ on type from twenty-five 
per cent, ad valorem to fifteen cents per pound on book and news type, and thirty 
cents per pound on job and fancy type, equal to fifty to one hundred and twenty per 
cent, ad, valorem, according to size of type. This, in the face of a general reduction 
upon other commodities of tariffs and taxes, is certainly an absurd and unjust meas¬ 
ure, and smacks of a “job” on the part of the type founders. It is so glaringly un¬ 
just that it would seem that it must of itself attract the attention and condemnation 
of even the most indifferent and disinterested in Congress, and we would have no 
hesitancy in predicting its unquestionable defeat but for the fact that there already 
exists a tariff, as stated above, of twenty-five per cent, ad valorem. There are at 
present in the United States but twelve type foundries, and to say that these, em¬ 
ploying not to exceed 700 men, women and children, (principally the latter) should 
be protected at the expense of uj^ward of 120,000 men employed in the printing 
business, is not only unjust but partakes of the oppression of the dark ages. Even 
the i^resent tariff amounts to a prohibition, and enables the dozen founders to mo¬ 
nopolize the trade, from which monopoly they have grown to be the wealthiest in- 









lo 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


stitutions in the country. We ask onr representatives in Congress is this just, at 
the expense, as it is, of the neediest class in the country ? The Government is not 
benefitted by the tariff, for it is not a tariff but virtually a prohibition. The Gov¬ 
ernment under the present tariff receives but $20,000 a year from the importation 
of foreign manufactured type, and by doubling or trebling the tariff, as proposed, it 
will receive even less, for then few indeed, if any, will be able to luxuriate in foreign 
type, and the sole result will be an advance in the price of type and an increase of 
the volume of sheckels from the poor printers’ pockets to the spacious coffers of the 
foundry sharks. 

Insfead of advancing the tariff on type it should be abolished entirely as a tax 
and embargo upon education and civilization; and we hope our Representatives in 
Congress will not only strenuously oppose this unjust amendment but secure its en¬ 
tire abolition. 


Prom The Todd County Argus (Long Prairie, Minnesota), February 

27, 1878. 

The Type Tariff. —The tariff schedule reported by the Congressional Com¬ 
mittee on Ways and Means, contains one feature which it is the duty of every news¬ 
paper man and job printer to aid in crushing, if possible. It is that part which In¬ 
creases the tariff on type from twenty-five per cent, ad valorem to fifteen cents per 
pound on news and book type, and thirty cents per pound on job and fancy type. 
A single glance is only necessary to reveal the plain fact that it is a palpable fraud, 
and a put-up job in the interests of type founders of this country, and means vir¬ 
tual prohibition of the importation of foreign type. The whole number of type 
founders in the United States amounts to but twelve, employing, all told, less than 
seven hundred persons, and most of whom are children, receiving but small pay; 
and to impose a heavy tax upon more than two hundred thousand persons employed 
in the printing business for the sole purpose of benefitting a dozen type foundries, 
is unjust in the extreme. The capital invested in the manufacture of type in this 
country is but small, and the establishments are flourishing and need no protection. 
The present duty is too heavy, and it would be only fair and right to reduce it, as 
cheap type means cheap books and cheap newspapers. There is at present some 
competition on the part of Scotch type founders, who pay a duty on their type, and 
claim to sell a better article at the same price as American type is sold. It is hoped 
that the press generally will aid in urging upon Congress the necessity of defeating 
this proposed extortionate duty on type. 


Prom The Daily Herald (Vicksburg, Mississippi), Tuesday Morning, 

February 26, 1878. 

The tariff bill now before Congress fixes the duty on book and news type at fif¬ 
teen cents a pound, and on fancy type at thirty cents a pound. This amounts to a 
virtual prohibition of the importation of type, and will therefore bring the Govern¬ 
ment no revenue. It will, however, enable the type founders of this country to 
charge printers and publishers much higher for type, and is thus practically taxing 
them to keep up the already rich manufacturers. We hope every Congressman 
from this State will vote to take off all the tariff on this article, which, in this read¬ 
ing age, is a necessity. 


From the Daily Journal (Lafayette, Indiana), February 22, 1878. 

The Tariff Revision. —A bill for the revision of the tariff .has lately been 
introduced into Congress, which in many of its features is unjust and oppressive. 
There is now an ad valorem tariff of twenty-five per cent, upon imported type. The 
new bill changes the ad ndorem to a specific duty of fifteen cents per pound on book 






THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


17 


and news type, and thirty cents per pound on job and fancy type, thus making an 
increase in the tariff rates on printing material of from fifty to one hundred and 
twenty per cent. There are just twelve individuals in the United States who con¬ 
trol the manufacture of type. The new tariff bill, should it become a law, would 
benefit these few individuals only, while it would work a great hardship to thous¬ 
ands engaged in the printing business. We hope our members of Congress will de¬ 
feat this bill. It is unjust. It imposes a severe burden upon the many to enrich 
a few. It will virtually prohibit the importation of type and enable American 
founders to charge exorbitantly for their goods. There is no necessity that the type 
manufacturers should be protected. They have a margin of profit quite ample, and 
they would not pay their employes one dime more than they now do, while it would 
more than double their profits and extort large sums of money from the printers. 
It will be a tax upon the masses for the benefit of twelve men. We ask that mem¬ 
bers of Congress will give this their attention, and not permit so unjust and oppres¬ 
sive a measure to become a law. 


Prom The Colorado Mountaineer, Colorado Springs, Col., El Paso 

County. 

The Type Tariff.— The proposed tax on knowledge in the interest of a few 
type founders in America is carrying the principle of protection to the extreme of 
fanaticism. Why should American type founders be protected at the expense of 
the reading public ? The entire system of protection is absurd. If an American 
cannot compete with a foreigner in manufacturing anything let him step down and 
out, and go to farming, mining, wool growing or printing newspapers. To compel 
the printers of the United States to pay any price our home type founders are a 
mind to charge, is nothing more or less than putting two hundred thousand or more 
printers under the thumb of combined monopoly. It is the height of nonsense to 
talk of free enlightenment, free schools and the American principle of the greatest 
freedom to the dissemination of unrestricted intelligence among the people, and in 
the same breath pile on a tariff of fifty to one hundred per cent, on every pound o 
type by which ‘Tree and universal knowledge” is to be diffused. 


From The Union (New York City). 

Type and Tariff.— The new tariff bill fixes the duty on common type at fif¬ 
teen cents per pound, which is from forty to sixty per cent, mi valorem. The rate 
on job and fancy type is thirty cents a pound, which is from fifty to one hundred 
and twenty jjer cent, ad valorem. Yet the annual duties collected under the present 
rates did not exceed the sum of $20,000. Under the rates now proposed the duties 
would be prohibitory, a result which could only be desirable to the owners of the 
dozen type foundries in the United States. There are twenty thousand printing of¬ 
fices in this country, which employ some one hundred and twenty thousand hands, 
against seven hundred employed in the dozen type foundries. There is, it must be 
known, some competition at present on the part of the Scotch type founders, who 
pay duties on their imports and claim to sell a superior article at the same prices as 
American type is sold. The type founders in this country have been doing well un¬ 
der the old tarift'. It is evident that they do not need any further protection, and 
a tariff which cuts off Government revenue is by no means desirable or advisable 
just now, that taxation in whatever shape is a burden to every one. The present 
tariff puts about $20,000 a year in the public treasury from the sale of foreign type. 
This competition is far more desirable than any sort of prohibitory tariff. The lat¬ 
ter, while it would cut off revenue, would in all probability have the effect to in¬ 
crease still further the price of type in this country, thus being a direct tax on print¬ 
ers and publishers, as well as on the reading public indirectly, because all foreign 
competition so essential for the dissemination of knowledge, would be shut out, not 
to mention the inferior article in the shape of type printers would hereafter get at 

2 








18 


THE duty on type. 


exorbitant rates. The twenty thousand printing offices in the United States ha\ e 
considerable interest in the question. No doubt the type foundries would gam an 
important point by a prohibitory tariff, but printers and publishers would be the 
losers to a considerable extent. 

We have communicated with the Hon. Clarkson N. Potter, Congressman or 
this district, as well as with other prominent Congressmen, and we trust they will 
act wisely in the premises, whenever the type tariff comes before Congress. Com¬ 
petition in this important trade is a question of life. 


From the Ann Arbor Register (Michigan), Wednesday, February 

27, 1878. 

Duty on Foreign Type. —One of the amendments to the new tariff bill now 
before the House proposes to change the duty on foreign news and book type froni 
twenty-five per cent, ad valorem to a specific duty of fifteen cents per pound, or in 
other words to make the duty about fifty per cent, ad valorem, and to change the 
duty on job and fancy type to thirty cents per pound, which will make the duty on 
this class of type from thirty to one hundred and twenty per cent, ad valorem., ac¬ 
cording to size and style of letter. This change certainly is not in the interest ot 
the twenty thousand printing offices in the United States, which give employment 
to about one hundred and twenty thousand men. It will be a magnificent arrange¬ 
ment for the twelve type foundries, which do not employ over one thousand men all 
told. The annual receipts by the Government from duties on type do not amount 
to $20,000, showing that the present duty is almost prohibitory in its workings. It 
is for the interest of every class that printing should be done as cheaply as possible, 
and we trust that the representatives of Michigan will do their duty, and see to it 
that their constituents are not turned over to the tender mercies of a dozen ty^ie 
founders, who do not need protection, and have no right to receive it at the expense 
of the people at large. 


From The Huntsville Item (Huntsville, Texas). 

A vigorous effort is being made to abolish the tariff, so far as foreign imported 
type is concerned—originating in the Pacific States. It appears there are about a 
dozen type foundries in this country, and for their protection the craft has to pay 
twenty-five per cent, on all imported type. The new tariff proposes a uniform rate 
of fifteen cents on all imported material, while there is hardly a matrix our own 
foundries use but is imported. Now, we have wanted a font of 2-line pica for years 

_it is not to be had here, and why ? The foundries make 2-line English, or 2-line 

paragon, etc., because they originate nothing, but borrow or buy or steal all their 
moufds from abroad, and the printer is excluded from the foreign market by the pro¬ 
hibitory tarift’! We can get just what we want by an open market; if the article is 
not on hand abroad, they would originate it forthwith; here they can’t, or it is 
cheaper to horrow it. It is time the nuisance was abated. Petitions are pouring 
into Cono-ress from all parts, demanding free trade in type, and it is to be hoped the 
measure will receive promiit attention by the servants of the people. 


From The South (Holly Springs, Mississippi), February 27. 

Taxing Type. —It appears that the duty fixed on news and book type by the 
tariff bill which is before Congress, is fifteen cents per pound, and on job and fancy 
type thirty cents. Such a rate is prohibitory, and can yield little or nothing to the 
Government. It is in the interest of a few type founders in this country, who know 
they cannot stand against foreign competition, and it is likely this clause of the bill 
is one of their jobs. With type made free of duty, as it ought to be, the cost to 
printers would not lie fifty per cent, of present prices, which under existing regula- 










10 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


tions they are compelled to pay to a monopoly of nine or ten type founders in this 
country. We liaYe no do\dit that literary, scientihc and political newspapers, books, 
magazines and pamphlets give wings to thought and are a luxury to the masses of 
the people. But we confess we think it is a luxury which no Governmeht which de¬ 
pends on the enlightenment of its people can afford to tax. And especiallv when 
that tax is for the benefit of monopolists and injurious to a vast body of publishers, 
as well as compelling larger prices from every description of readers through all the 
classes and gradations of society, from the schoolboy, laborer, mechanic and farmer 
to the savants in the professions, in literature and science, it becomes an outrage. 
There ought at most to be no more than a mere nominal duty on type. And if re¬ 
duction, instead of the proposed iniquitous increase, can be compelled by the press, 
we trust its power may be promptly and universally exerted. 


Prom The Ovid Register (Ovid, Clinton County, Michigan), February 

23, 1878. 

The printers in the United States are being thoroughly stirred up by a propo¬ 
sition to increase the present tariff on foreign type, which is about twenty-five per 
cent, ad valorem, to from fifty to seventy-five per cent., or more than double the 
present tarifl. The facts in relation to the matter are briefly these ; The present 
duty allows the importation of foreign type to this country, and brings it in compe¬ 
tition with our American type, and this has brought about a slight reduction in the 
prices. There are only twelve type foundries in the United States, emj)loying about 
seven hundred hands, and in the absence of foreign competition these establish¬ 
ments combine and fix a scale of prices oppressive if not ruinous to the printers. At 
the present duty the importation of foreign type places about ^20,000 in the treasu¬ 
ry annually, besides keeping American type at a much lower figure than it would 
otherwise be. The proposed advance of the duty would amount to prohibition, 
which would greatly reduce or entirely destroy the treasury income from that source, 
and leave the printers of the country to the tender mercies of twelve corporations, 
which would grind the faces of the poor printers without let or hindrance. There 
are twenty thousand printing offices in the United States, giving employment to one 
hundred and twenty thousand operatives, all of whom are directly interested in this 
question, and they have such facilities for making their grievances known through 
their representatives in Congress and the combined press of the country, that this 
sly attempt of the few to aggrandize themselves at the expense of the many will not 
only be frustrated, but will, instead of obtaining an increased duty on the article in 
question, result in placing it on the free list, where, in our judgment, it belongs. 


Prom the Western Star (Roseburg, Oregon). 

Tariff on Type.— The present Congress is now engaged in remodeling the 
tariff, at the urgent request of the people of the whole Union, the main object being 
to abolish or reduce all such as are prohibitory, and allow none that do not produce 
a revenue. It is not to be wondered at that the Committee of Ways and Means, in 
the multitude of articles now included in our complicated schedules, should have 
made some mistakes, but the most conspicuous among these is the duty upon for¬ 
eign-made type imported into the United States. It proposes to increase the duty, 
which is already 25 per cent, ad valorem, to a specific duty of 15 cents per pound on 
news and book type, or- an average of 50 per cent., and to 30 cents per pound on 
job and fancy type, or an average of 80 per cent. If this proposition shall be 
passed into a law, it will work injustice and oppression to the newspaper and job 
printing offices of this whole Coast. There are, altogether, from 400 to 500 print¬ 
ing establishments on this side of the Rocky Mountains, in which are employed fully 
ten times as many hands. Three-fourths of these establishments use the imported 
tyne on account of its sui)eriority to any other, and some attenti(jn ought to be 






20 


THE DITTY ON TYPE. 


paid to their interests and wishes. We think that instead of increasing the duty 
on tyi>e, it would be much better to reduce it, anti to make it little more than nom¬ 
inal. To advance it agreeably to the proposed figure will be almost etpiivalent to 
prohibiting its importation into the country. The duty on type is higher in this 
than in any other country in the world. It is much like a tax on knowledge. And 
we hope that the press of the Coast, generally, will take up the subject and join in 
urging upon the Senators and Representatives and Delegates from the Pacific 
States and Territories the importance of having this most extortionate proposed 
duty on type defeated in Congress. It ought to be done. 


From the Daily Standard (Sterling, Illinois). 

One of the amendments to the new tariff bill now before the House is to change 
the proposed 20 per cent, on type, which would be a reduction of 5 per cent, from 
the present tariff, to a specific duty of 15 cents per pound on news and book type, or 
really about 50 per cent, ad valorem, and 30 cents per pound on job and fancy type, 
or from 30 per cent, to 120 per cent, ad valorem, according to the size and style of 
the letter. We hope that our representatives in Congress will oppose this unjust 
amendment to the tariff bill. 


From the Princeton [Advance (Princeton, Missouri), February 21. 

A feature of the new tariff bill provides for the increasing of the duty upon 
foreign t 3 Tj)e, thus placing the 20,000 printing offices of this country at the mercy of 
the dozen type foundries in this country, who are now reaping an immense profit 
from the manufacture of type. It is an outrage, and the Representative who votes 
for it is deserving of the execration of every newspaper in the land. 


From the Rice County Journal (Northfield, Minn,), February 21. 

A Job from an Unexpected Quarter.— And now it is proposed to put the 
poor printers on the gridiron. The dozen or so type manufacturers of the United 
States have, “ by hook or by crook,” ingratiated themselves into favor with Fer¬ 
nando Wood and his Committee of the House of Representatives at Washington, 
so as to get into its report a change of the tariff duty on foreign manufactured tyjie 
which will amount to prohibition, giving our manufacturers such a monopoly as 
will squeeze the life out of all printers who are not rich. Instead of the proposed 
20 per cent, on type, which would be a reduction of five per cent, from the present 
tariff, to a specific duty of 15 cents per pound on news and book type, or really 50 
per cent, ad valorem, and 30 cents ]Der pound on job or fancy type, or from 30 per 
cent, to 120 per cent, ad valorem, according to size and style of the letter. Let our 
Representatives in Washington be requested to oppose this blow aimed at every 
printer in the country, because of its glaring injustice. 

Fellow printers and publishers, let us arouse and smash this ring. 


From the Brookston Reporter (Brookston, Indiana), February 21. 

The tariff is a very necessary resort among nations, both for revenue and the 
protection of home manufactures. It is the duty of the government to look to the 
building up of their own country rather than other nations. But when the duties 
become so onerous as to oppress the consumer, and in the aggregate more are in¬ 
jured than benefited, then national right is abused. Our motto should be to live 
and let live. A specific tariff' of 25 per cent, is now laid on all kinds of printing 
material. Under this protection the dozen type founders in the United States have 
grown rich and powerful. The amount of capital invested in a type fonntiry is not 









THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


21 


great, and the profits are large, and there are no good reasons for any greater pro¬ 
tection. Yet there is an effort now being made to raise the tariff on printing ma¬ 
terial by these greedy men. They have besieged the Committee of Ways and 
Means until a report has been secured raising the tariff' on these articles about one- 
half more, while the old rates are an eft'actnal protection against importations, and 
amount almost to a prohibition. But the type men, like the goldites, want the rev¬ 
enue of which the Government is now deprived to flow more copiously into their 
own pockets. We hope our Congress will check in time this effort to draw on the 
department of education and knowledge for the purpose of building up a few aris¬ 
tocrats in our country. The type founders must learn that they are not the only 
class of people in the printing and publishing business who are suffering under the 
pressure of the times. See the thousand and one printer tramps wlio have been 
thrown out of employment by contraction in the printing business, and who will be 
further oppressed by the proposed legislation. Let petitions go up from every part 
of the nation against the passage of the i)resent bill. 


From the Ashtabula Telegraph (Ashtabula, Ohio), Friday, 

February 22. 

The slashing character of Wood’s Tariff Bill—which is doing so much to arouse 
dis(piiet and apprehension—may be judged of from the way in wdiich it is proposed 
to dispose of the type interests of the country. By this new revision, the duty upon 
foreign-made type imported into the United States is put at 15 cents a pound for 
new^s and book type, which is from 40 to 00 per cent, ad valorem. The rate upon 
job and fancy type is 30 cents per pound, which is from 50 to 100 per cent, ad va¬ 
lorem. This would be simply prohibitory, and leave the great printing interests of 
the country at the mercy of a few rapacious type founders, prove a tax upon litera¬ 
ture and knowledge, and deprive the Government of all revenues from this source, 
amounting now to some $20,000. Beside these considerations, let us not be un¬ 
mindful of the fact that there are 20,000 printing offices in the country, employing 
not less than 120,000 men, while the foundries of the country do not exceed, pro¬ 
bably, a dozen in number, and their employes do not rise much above 1,000 or 
1,200, the injustice of this ring movement is made all the more apparent. It was 
the greed of these founders, through their combinations, that drove the printers 
and publishers of the country to make their purchases, at greatly reduced rates, of 
the Scotch type founders, who no: only furnished their wares at greatly reduced 
prices, but used a metal in casting, harder and far more durable than the American 
article, so that there was a double gain to the American purchaser. This move¬ 
ment is to deprive the trade of these advantages, and to throw us back again to this 
same rapacity from which there has been so successful a struggle. 

It is the duty of every representative of the press to use every effort to defeat this 
outrageous bill, and to do this our Senators and Representatives should be made 
sensible of the w^rong, and every influence brought to bear to meet it with the 
most positive opposition. 


From the Las Animas Leader (West Las Animas, Bent County 

Colorado), February 22. 

Tariff on Type.— Eternal vigilance does seem to be the condition upon which 
w^e retain many of our rights. It wdll not answer to lie dormant. The foe never 
sleeps. The i)resent danger is to the printers and publishers of the United States, 
and indirectly to the cause of popular education. Whatever assails the interests of 
the book and newspaper publishers of the United States affects their unquestioned 
influence in the enlightenment of the masses. The danger alluded to manifests 
itself in the new tariff' bill which proposes to place an additional duty on news and 
book tyjie of 25 to 50 per cent, ad valorem. The present tariff’ being prohibitive, 
the new bill w^ould simply be outrageous. Jt ought to be sufficient to say that on 










22 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


one side it is for tlie direct interest of eight or nine American type foundries that 
this scheme is set on foot, and on the other no less than 20,000 printing offices, em¬ 
ploying 120,000 men, are expected to be the taxed class. We believe in protection, 
but in this case ought not the printers and publishers be protected a little ? We 
trust an intelligent body of representatives in Congress will be able to see and pre¬ 
vent so great an injustice as this type tariff would prove. The truth is, it does not 
need protection. 


From the New Baltimore "Weekly Enterprise (New Baltimore, 

Ohio), February 21. 

The new tariff bill now before Congress, which fixes the duty on news and book 
type at 15 cents a pound, and fancy type at 30 cents per pound, is one which should 
receive the attention of our Congressmen before final action is taken upon the 
matter. 


From The Journal (Loudon, Tennessee), Friday, February 22, 1878. 

The New Tariff Bill.— We learned from Washington, on Wednesday last, 
that one of the amendments to the new tariff bill now before the House, was^ to 
change the proposed twenty per cent, on type, which would be a reduction of five 
per cent, from the present tariff, to a specific duty of fifteen cents per pound on 
news and book type, or really about fifty per cent, ad valorem., and thirty cents per 
pound on job and fancy type, or from thirty to one hundred and twenty per cent. 
ad valorem, according to the size and style of letter. 

This is one of the most infamous jobs ever heard of in tariff legislation, and 
bears upon its face the handiwork of tile “Type Ring.” 

There is one thing certain—if this outrageous bill should be ,passed, it will cost 
the printers of Tennessee thousands upon thousands of dollars, whereas, should it 
be beaten, and the existing twenty-five per cent, be taken off, it would put thous¬ 
ands of dollars into their pockets. 

The best ivay to defeat this measure is for every publisher to write to their rep¬ 
resentative in Congress without delay, and urge them to use their influence against 
that portion of the proposed tarift’. Let them all speak out, and see that it is 
brought to the personal attention of every senator and representative. The united 
influence of the press will surely have the effect of defeating it. 


From the Philipsburg Journal (Philipsburg, Pa.), March 9. 

Should be Voted Down.— The following article from the Bellefonte Watch 
mail, on a subject that interests printers, is so well said that we reproduce it en- 
tire : 

‘ ‘ Every interest howls as it is hurt by the proposed changes in the tariff’. One 
class of iron manufacturers applaud and praise it, while another class denounce it in 
the most violent terms. Dealers in certain lines of merchandise think it just right, 
while those interested in the sale of other goods are bitter in their opposition to it. 
Individuals who use certain lines of articles that are placed upon the free list, or 
upon which duties are lessened, rejoice in the prospect of purchasing at lower prices 
hereafter, while those who are necessitated to use articles of any kind upon which 
the duties are increased, understand exactly that it is out of their pockets that the 
increased revenues of the Government are to come, and complain accordingly. Ev 
ery one growls as he is pinched ; every one rejoices as he is relieved, and the eyes 
of the people are beginning to open to the fact that a tariff after all is only a tax lev¬ 
ied upon one crowd for the benefit of another, or rather a system by which one por¬ 
tion of our citizens are forced to pay the expenses of the Government, wliile another 
portion are relieved of bearing any part of that expense whatever. 






THE DUTY OM TYTE, 


oo 


“ Perhaps no class of persons have more cause for opposition to the proposed 
change than the printers of the country. The hill as proposed increases duties on 
plain type fifteen cents per pound. There are but twelve type founders in the coun¬ 
try, employing all told less than seven hundred persons. It is these dozen type 
founders who are to be benelitted by this increased duty on type, and it is the ten 
thousand employing printers and their hundreds of thousands of employes who are 
to be taxed in order that these few founders shall receive increased prices for what 
they have to sell, and accumulate wealth more rapidly than they are now doing. 

“The proposed increased duty on type is simply a proposition to prohibit the 
importation of any whatever. The law as it now is imposes a duty of twenty-live 
per cent, ad valorem on every tj^pe imported, and so nearly has that been a prohibi¬ 
tory taviff, that the amount of duty paid on imported type for the last year amount¬ 
ed to less than twenty thousand dollars. Let this additional duty, as proposed, be 
placed upon type, and not a cent of revenue will be derived by the Government, for 
not a pound will be imported. In place of creating revenues for the Government, 
it will prove only a source of increased prolit to a dozen of type founders and in¬ 
creased burdens on every printing office in the country. We hope that our mem¬ 
bers of Congress will have sense enough to vote down at least this part of the new 
tariff bill. 


From the San Jose Pioneer (San Jose, Santa Clara County, 

California), February 16. 

The Tariff on Type. —The question of adding a tariff of fifteen cents per 
pound on news and book type, and thirty cents on job and fancy type, is now being 
pretty generally discussed by the newspapers throughout the Union. As a princi¬ 
ple of justice we are opposed to tariffs that prevent competitions of any kind, to the 
detriment of the consumers, who have to pay the tariff in an indirect way ; and as 
a matter of course we are opposed to putting a tariff on type, which will cause us to 
pay double for home-made type, that you would have to jiay if foreign competition 
was allowed. Besides, we can see no justice in giving home mannfacturers a bonus 
that they certainly would be allowed by the tariff. There are but a few foundries 
in the Union, and the proprietors of these have grown rich already, and w^e can see 
no injustice in removing the tariff from printing materials altogether, and thus 
giving the poor printers a small chance of making a living. We hope our repre¬ 
sentatives in Congress will think well upon this question before they pass the new 
Tariff Bill. 


From the Los Angeles Daily Republican (Los Angeles, Los 
Angeles County, California), February 11. 

The Proposed New Tariff on Type. —On general principles we are in favor 
of a tariff as a source of revenue, and as incidentally furnishing aid in the develop¬ 
ment of meritorious American manufacturing interests 

But when that tariff becomes oppressive, or amounts to a prohibition of the 
introduction of first-class goods, as against an inferior article of domestic manufac¬ 
ture at the same cost, in the interest of a few American jobbers in shoddy, whose 
use is thus compelled by reason of the protection or prohibition given by the tariff, 
we revolt. 

We think the present, a case under the proposed new tariff on type, one that 
will justify the position we take. It is not only a tax on the means and facilities 
for the universal spread of knowledge in the WTiy of newspapers, books, and other 
publications, A\'hich, to be of service, should be of as good material as possible, but 
it ccmipels the use of inferior goods, added to the cheapness, which defeats the very 
end sought to be attained and cherished by every American, that useful knowledge, 
if not alisolutely free, should be as near to it as may be from every possible restric¬ 
tion. 

Therefore the columns of a newspaper or book printed with these cheap metal- 









24 


THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


lie compounds called tyi)e, often present more the appearance of a daub than the 
clear-cut and handsome face the same articles printed with some of the foreign 
makes—notably those from some of the Scotch founders, which are believed to be 
the best found in the American trade. 

When type of this acknowledged superiority can be produced at the same cost, 
we at once pronounce in its favor, and do not think we are doing violence to oiir 
our Republican ‘ ‘ tariff ” notions, but laboring for the best interests of the public 
and the spread of useful knowledge in a readable and comprehensive form, which 
should be the mission of every newspaper and book publisher in the land. 

From an examination of the proposed charge per pound on imported type, run¬ 
ning from 15 to 30 cents ad valorem, it must be apparent to all that its effect, if not 
the sole object, is to prohibit importations, producing an actual loss instead of an 
increase of the revenue, without any pretence that the type will be any better, or 
even so good in quality, or lower in price to the user. If none of these advantages 
are to be attained, why adopt the plan proposed ? So far we see no reason our¬ 
selves. On the contrary, there are many why this special feature of the new bill 
should not be adopted. We hope such a protest will go up from the newspaper and 
publishing interest throughout the country that the attempt to bar out the impor¬ 
tation of first-class ty])e or printing material by high rates will be wholly abandoned 
as unwise and impracticable. 


From the San Rafael Herald (San Rafael, Marin County, Califor¬ 
nia), February 16. 

Proposed TvmE Tariff. —The new tariff bill, which fixes the duty on news 
and book type at 15 cents a pound, and on fancy at 30 cents a p<jund, is one which 
should receive the careful consideration of our Congressmen before final action is 
taken upon the matter. In order to crush out foreign competition in type—the 
best and cheapest quality of wdiich is manufactured in Scotland—a small ring of 
American type founders are endeavoring to obtain from Congress an alteration in 
the existing tariff, increasing the duty upon foreign type, so as to practically pro¬ 
hibit its importation. A prohibitory tariff would necessarily work injuriously both 
ways—the present revenue, amounting to some $20,000, would be lost to the coun¬ 
try, and the price of American type would, as a natural consequence, be increased. 
The matter is one which seriously interests every newspaper and printing office in 
the United States, and we hope our contemporaries will enter an earnest protest on 
the subject. 


From the Sonoma Democrat (Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, 

California), February 16. 

The New Tariff Bill. —We have not seen this new tariff bill in detail, but 
we infer from some extracts made from its provisions which have fallen under our 
notice, that it is not at all calculated to produce revenue, and thus operate benefi¬ 
cially for the people, but that in some of its provisions it is formed particularly for 
the benefit of individual interests, among the most flagrant of which we may men¬ 
tion that clause relative to printing material, which evidently will, in its provisions, 
if the bill is passed with that clause in it, materially aid and sustain a combination 
of type founders in building up a monopoly in the manufacture of type, to the det¬ 
riment of all newspaper publishers and tlie reading public, while it will tend to cut 
off all revenue heretofore arising from that source. 

If, as we see it stated, this bill fixes a specific duty on news and book type at 15 
cents per pound, amounting to sometJiing like 40 to (50 per cent, ad valorem, it is 
simply enacting a prohibitory clause, shutting out all competition and resulting in 
no benefit to the (jovernment in the way of revenue. The rate on job and fancy 
type, at 30 cents per pound, would be a complete exclusion of imi)orters, and would 
leave newspaper men at the mercy of the type founders, who would umpiostionably 
advance their i)rices for a poorer material in ratio with the advanced tarifi' rates. 








THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


25 


and thus subject purchasers to a necessity of paying twice as much, at the least cal¬ 
culation, than it would otherwise cost them for a superior article of the same class 
of goods. 

W e cannot, for the life of us, see why it is that men entrusted with a manage¬ 
ment of the affairs of the people should thus seek to discriminate, in measures of 
public policy, in favor of one class of people to the detriment of another. We care 
not who puts up the job for this class of legislation, or whether it affects our inter¬ 
ests directly, as this does, or Avhether it bears upon the interests of other parties, 
there should be integrity enough, nerve enough, among those who are sent to re[)- 
resent us to shut out all this special legislation in favor of individual interests. 
The tariff thus provided for is as much a subsidy, in fact, to the type founders as 
would be the granting of broad acres to railroad companies or other corporations— 
is contrary to the spirit of Democracy in favoring one class at the expense of other 
interests, and will prove a detriment rather than a benefit in the way of revenue. 


From the Santa Clara Echo (Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, 

California), Feb. 16. 

An effort is now being made by a number of the leading type founders of the 
United States to exclude the importation of foreign type by placing thereon a pro¬ 
hibitory tariff, and a bill embracing this provision is now pending before Congress. 
As a combination has long been in existence among the American manufacturers of 
type, and as the combination is solely in the interests of capital, very little labor 
being called into requisition, and much of that of the cheapest grades, a slight pro¬ 
tective tariff is all in the name of propriety, sense or justice that American foun¬ 
ders have any reasonable right to expect. The benefit of a protective tariff they 
now enjoy to an unwarranted extent, 25 per cent, being the present tariff on im¬ 
ported type. By the new tariff proposed, a specific duty of 15 cents per pound is 
levied on common type, equal to an average of 50 per cent, ad valorem, or about 
double the present tariff. As a prohibitory tariff means oppression to the many, 
and the granting of an unjust advantage to the very few. Congress should not allow 
this tariff bill to become a law as it now stands. 


From The Daily Tribune, (Salt Lake), February 16. 

A Tax Upon Knowledge. —The printers and publishers of San Francisco, 
representing, as they perhaps justly claim, the printing interest of the Pacific Coast, 
are up in arms at the proposed amendment to the new tariff bill, now under con¬ 
sideration by the House, Avhich increased the tax on foreign type so as to make it 
prohibitory. The present tax is twenty-five per cent. But the influence of the 
type founders has made itself felt in Congress, and the amendment offered wt)uld 
increase the tax to about double the present amount, or fifty per cent, ad valorem. 
The San Francisco Bulletin thus succintly states the case: 

“The new tariff bill fixes the duty on news and book type at 15 cents a pound, 
which is from 40 to 60 per cent, ad valorem. The rate on job and fancy type is 30 
cents a pound, which is from 50 to 120 per cent, ad valorem. The annual duties 
collected under the present rates did not exceed S20,000. Under the rates now pro¬ 
posed, the duties would be prohibitory, a result which could only be desirable to 
the proprietors of the dozen type foundries in the United States. There are 20,000 
printing offices in this country, which employ not less than 120,000 men, against 
the 700 employed in the type foundries. There is some competition at present on 
the part of the Scotch type founders, who pay duties on their imports and claim to 
sell a better article at the same prices as American type is sold. The type foundries 
in this country have been doing well under the old tarifl. It is quite evident that 
they do not need any additional protection. A tariff which cuts off revenue is not 
desirable. The present tariff puts about S20,000 a year in the public treasury from 




THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


2(; 


tlie sale of foreign type. This competition is far more desirable than a prohibitory 
tariff. The latter, while it would cnt off revenue, would have the effect to increase 
further the price of type in this country, because all foreign competition would be 
shut out. The 20,000 printing offices in the United States have considerable inter¬ 
est in the question. No doubt the type foundries would gain an important point 
by a prohibitory tariff. But would this private gain be of real benefit to the country ?” 

The object proposed by the new tariff bill is to levy a tax upon fewer imported 
articles and thus diminish the cost of collection. To this end it reduces the number 
of taxable articles 2,000 to 500, making revenue the main object, instead of the 
exploded policy of protection. Wise legislation will encourage trade by reducing 
the cost of production, as the experience of centuries has shown that consumption 
increases at a geometrical ratio to the reduced cost of commodities. Tyj^e and paper 
enter largely into the manufacture of printed matter, and a tax upon one or both of 
these articles takes the odious form of a tax upon knowledge. When Great Britain 
started upon the work of political reform by the passage of the Reform bill of 1831. 
among the first results of this forward movement Avas the abolition of the stamp 
duty upon newspapers and the tax upon advertisements. This reduced the cost of 
newspapers eighty per cent, (from five pence to one penny), and now every intelli¬ 
gent workingman in the British Isles has his penny neAVSpaper for evening reading. 
In this age it will not do for the American Congress to advance backward ; and as 
we believe this Democratie Congress has started out with the honest intention of 
reforming our preposterous tariff laws, and putting them upon a basis of common 
sense, it will only be necessary to bring to their knowledge the unwise and inujuitous 
character of the amendment proposed, to secure its rejection and save our country 
from the disgrace of again fostering monopoly at the expense of the entire popula¬ 
tion. If statesmanship and sound judgment cannot be brought to the vitally im¬ 
portant work of revising the tariff, better let the blunders of our former law-makers 
stand, as it will be better to bear the ills we have than shift them for others that 
Avill be more burdensome. 


From the Calaveras Chronicle, (Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County), 

February 16. 

An Obnoxious Feature in the Tariff Bill. —The new tariff bill reported 
in Congress has a number of objectionable features, but by odds the most obnoxious 
one is the provision relative to printing types. Under the present hiAV an ad valorem 
duty of twenty-five per cent, is levied upon type imported, resulting in the collec¬ 
tion of about ^20,000 annual revenue by the Government. The tariff, as it now 
stands, is not prohibitory, and under it foreign founders are enabled to compete 
with home manufacturers—at least to an extent sufficient to prevent the business 
passing entirely into the hands of a monopoly, with power to fix prices at figures 
commensurate with its greed. The new tariff bill proposes to impose a specific duty 
of fifteen cents per pound on plain and thirty cents on fancy type—equal to an ad 
valorem tax of fifty to one hundred and twenty per cent.! Such a tariff would be 
absolutely prohibitory; would cut off all foreign competition, leaving the casting of 
type in the hands of a combination of American founders with nothing in the Avorld 
to prevent its putting prices at exorbitant figures. There are less than a dozen 
type foundries in the United States, employing but a comparatiA^ely few men. A 
very liberal estimation of the number would ]iot place it above six hundred. And 
yet it is proposed to lay every man, woman and child in the country, Avho reads a 
newspaper or book, under contribution that these few men may monopolize, fatten 
and thrive at the expense of the public, “protected” by law from competition in 
any shape. It amounts, in fact, to handing over publishers and printers, bound 
hand and foot, to the tender mercies of a combination that boldly asks Congress for 
license to plunder without stint and to be “protected ” in so doing. The proposi¬ 
tion is simpiy infamous. We repeat that the proposed tariff would be absolutely 
prohibitory. That is, not a pound of type will be imported if it passes. The result 
will be this: The Government will lose the $20,000 now annually paid by foreign¬ 
ers for the privilege of selling type here, while the same amount of money, or more, 




THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


^ I 


will be yearly filched from our people and put into the pockets of American founders 
in place of the public treasury. That, purely and simply, will be the eftect of the 
passage of the proposed tariff bill, so far as printing tyj^es are concerned. We don’t 
believe it is fair, or just, or equitable, or in conformity with an enlightened public 
policy to tax the community at large that a few men may grow rich without exer¬ 
tion. We respectfully call the attention of our representatives in Congress to this 
subject, and ask them to use their votes and influence in preventing a consumma- 
lon of the scheme to put the public in the power of a combination of manufacturers. 


From the Weekly Trinity Journal (Weaverville, Trinity County, 

California), February 16. 

Tariff on Type.— One of the most obnoxious features of the new Tariff Bill 
now before Congress is that which proposes to increase the import duty on type of 
foreign manufacture. While we may believe in a protective tariff in the abstract, 
we also believe such tariff should be regulated so as to insure the greatest good to 
the greatest number, and not in such manner as would result in enriching a few at 
the expense of the many. The type founders of the United States are exactly 
twelve in number, while the master printers of the country are not less than twenty 
thousand. These few founders have already grown wealthy at the expense of the 
employing printers, and this with the present tax of 25 per cent, ad valorem. The 
proposed tariff places a duty of 15 cents per pound on plain type, which is equal to 
an ad valorem of from 50 to 75 per cent., and 30 cents per pound on job and adver¬ 
tising type, equal to from 50 to 120 per cent, ad valorem, according to size and 
style of letter. It is plain to be seen that this would be nothing short of prohibi¬ 
tion, and leave the great printing industries of the United States at the mercy of 
the dozen type founders, already grown wealthy under the protection heretofore 
afforded them, and under a combination whereby competition among themselves is 
unknown. Cheap type means cheap books and cheap newspapers, but this branch 
of the matter is so plain that it need oidy be mentioned to be understood. The 
printers of the country are alive to the importance of defeating this increased tariff 
measure. While we believe type should be placed on the free list, we certainly 
hope our Representatives will not allow the tariff to be placed any higher than at 
present. 


From The Rocky Mountain Husbandman, (Montana Territory), 

February 28. 

The new tariff' bill before Congress proposing to change the present duty on 
foreign imported type to a specific tax of fifty cents per pound on news and book 
type, and thirty cents per pound on job and fancy type, which is 50 to 100 per cent. 
ad valorem, is a direct thrust at the interest of the printers of the United States— 
and indirectly at our most direct, thorough and economical means of education— 
by type manufacturers. The difference between a tariff for the protection of a 
national industry and one which necessitates the employment of less than 1,000 men, 
is very great. It may be wisdom to protect an industry which employs a large por¬ 
tion of our industrial population and forms a prominent item in our country’s 
wealth, or infantile industries that give such promise. But the manufacture of 
type can never employ a great number of people or cut any important figure in the 
wealth of the nation. And, since it must necessarily be carried on by a few, compe¬ 
tition can never be had except from beyond the ocean to reduce the prices, and a 
high protective tariff will only afford an opportunity for a ring of monopoly or extor¬ 
tion. In this land of republican institutions the free and untrameled press is the 
greatest safeguard to human liberty, the i)eoples educator and protector, and a blow 
at the interests of one, is an aggression upon the other. An increase of the tariff 
on printing material means an end to cheap books and papers, a tax upon education 
and a contracting of our resources of knowleege. Competition in the printing world 






28 


THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


has so reduced the margin of the printer that any increase in tlie cost of material 
must come from the masses who are poor and already overburdened with taxes. 
Cheap books, papers, periodicals, etc., is the greatest boon that a country can vouch¬ 
safe to its people. A 60 per cent, tarift' on type means a corresponding increase in 
the cost of printed matter, which would necessarily shut out the sunshine of civili¬ 
zation from many a household, leaving ignorance and superstition to reign and 
rankle therein, laying deep and broad the foundation of anarchy, misrule and des¬ 
potism. Politicians who find it to their interest to pander to the dictates of rings 
and monied combinations may favor such a measure, but no honest statesman, labor¬ 
ing in the interests of his constituency, and for that which is dearest to the Ameri¬ 
can people will ever vote for it. 

The printer wields the mightiest engine of human education ; the type is his 
implement of husbandry. With it he plows the waste places of the mind and sows 
broadcast the seeds of knowledge. Its importation should be free to every land and 
country that knows the value of civilization and price of liberty. Instead of enact¬ 
ing kws calculated to oppress the printer and contract the sphere of usefulness, 
measures should be taken in his behalf, his facilities multiplied until the light of 
knowledge radiates every home from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 


Prom The News Letter (San Francisco, Cal.), February 9. 

Taxing the Press. —The apothegm which says, “there are other ways of kill¬ 
ing a dog than by hanging him,” though not a very refined one, is one especially ap¬ 
plicable to the endeavors of those of our politicians, who uphold the slaughter of all 
foreign imports, irrespective of the benefit they may be to the country. The prc>- 
hibitory tariffs are, in many respects, a curse to the country, and a severe tax on a 
population that is daily becoming poorer and poorer, and less able to bear the re¬ 
strictions placed on absolute necessities, than they ever were before. The poor 
father of a family must be content to pay outrageous prices for shoddy garments, 
because good broadcloth is almost excluded by the heavy duties on it, from the 
American market, and for the same reason, the dresses of his wife and children are 
of inferior texture. This is but one of the many instances that might be adduced 
of the effects of the protective system, which particularly affects the X)Oor, and makes 
existence hard to bear in this country. The interests of the masses are ignored by 
those jDoliticians who make laws only for the benefit of the few ; and this grievance, 
instead of being modified, if not altogether done away with, threatens to be in¬ 
creased by contemplated new tariffs. A bold and unscrupulous tax of fifteen cents 
per pound on plain foreign type is now proposed, in the interest of some dozen tyjm 
foundries of the United States. This would be equal to from fifty to seventy-five 
jier cent, ad valorem, and thirty cents x>er jiound on job and advertising ty[ie, equal 
to from fifty to one hundi’ed and twenty p>er cent, ad valorem, according to the style 
and size of letter. It is simply a virtual prohibition of the imxiortation of foreign 
manufactured type, from which the Government at present derives in duty the 
amount ot twenty thousand dollars a year. The increased expense to the press of 
the country may easily be imagined when we state that there are twenty thousand 
X)rinting offices in the United States, enq^loying uj^ward of one hundred and twenty 
thousand men. Against these we have a dozen tyjie foundries emx)loying about sev¬ 
en hundred men. The Scotch type, from its hardness and durability, lasts one-third 
longer than the soft American type, and this is a fact well known to all practical 
printers. The exclusion of this type from the market would, therefore, inq)ose a 
heavy expense in the shape of freipient renewals. But this is not the only x)oint to 
be considered. With the exclusion of foreign tyjie a monox)oly of the business 
would at once follow, and the printer might have to pay, in the absence of foreign 
competition, any price that might be demanded for tyx)e. To exact this X)roposed 
tax W(ndd, therefore, not only destroy the source of revenue now derived from the 
foreign trade, but seriously crix)ple printing interests all over the country. This, in 
ehect, would tend to narrow the x^ower of our newsx:)ax')ers, inasmuch as cheax> news¬ 
papers mean the cheax) and universal education of the masses. We would strongly 




20 


THE HtTTY ON TYPE. 


urge our brethren of the press, no matter what their other opinions may be, to re¬ 
sist the job we have denounced, by signing the petition to Congress, now going 
round, against the contemplated addition to the tariff. 


From the Rock County Recorder (Janesville, Wis.) February 22. 

Tariff on Type.— It appears that the type founders — more appropriately 
termed “ type ring ”—are endeavoring to “ put up a job ” on the printers generally. 
If the latter consult their interests they will not be slow in entering their solemn 
protest against the measure to place a duty of fifteen cents per pound on plain type 
and thirty cents on job and fancy type, imported to this country. If it were not for 
foreign competition we would be paying the same rates for type now as were 
charged in 1873. The Government will derive no benefit from the duty on this 
class of material, as the proposed duty is so high as to prevent importation. Now 
there are only about twelve type foundries in the United States, owned by a few 
men, employing only a small number of hands, a majority of whom are children 
working for the cheapest kind of wages. It is plain to be seen that a heavy tariff 
on type will only benefit the owners of twelve type foundries to the detriment of 
millions of people, who are interested in the dissemination of literature and news at 
the very lowest figures. The present tariff (25 per cent, ad valorem) is almost pro¬ 
hibitory, as will be seen by the fact that the amount of duty paid on imported 
type for the year 1877 amounted to less than $20,000. x4s far as we are concerned, 
we protest against the proposed extortionate duty, which is nothing less than a tax 
on education and intelligence. The removal of the present tax on foreign manu¬ 
factured type would be more in place than to double it, as the type founders are 
trying to have done. 


From The Recorder (Rising Sun, Indiana), Saturday, February 23. 

The type founders of the United States have for years formed a corporation, 
and are a giant monopoly, and through their united efforts they compel the printers 
of this country to pay at least double what is a fair price, and a much higher price 
than the printers of England and Scotland pay for as good an article, if not better. 
So great a burden had this ‘ ‘ type founders’ ring become upon the printers of this 
country, that in 1873 Congress reduced the tariff upon plain type 20 percent., 
causing a decline in price to that extent. Now the “ type ring ” is before Congress 
working to get a prohibitory duty put upon type again. Plain type, such as is used 
in printing newspapers and books, should be put upon the free list, as a duty 
upon it is a tax upon knowledge. The business needs no protection at all, and the 
duty proposed is simply prohibitory — it will prevent importation altogether, thus 
furnishing no revenue to the government, but enriching a dozen foundries in the 
country at the expense of the 20,000 printing offices. About 120,000 men are em¬ 
ployed in the printing ofiices, and about 700 in the type foundries. The new rate 
of duty proposed amounts to from 40 to 60 per cent, ad valorem on plain type, and 
from 50 to 120 per cent, on job and fancy type. Give us plain type free of duty, 
and fix a low rate of 5 or 10 cents a pound on other type, and then it can be im¬ 
ported and pay a good revenue to the government. Let the press speak out, that 
our Senators and Representatives may act advisedly. 


From The Mail (San Francisco, Cal.), February 5. 

An Infamous Job. —We learned by telegraph from Washington on Friday last 
that one of the amendments to the new tariff bill now before the House was to 
change the proposed twenty per cent, on type, which would be a reduction of five 
})er cent., from the present tarift', to a specific duty of fifteen cents per pound on 
news and book type, or really about fifty per cent, ad valorem., and thirty cents per 








30 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


pound on job and fancy type, or from thirty per cent, to one hundred and twenty 
per cent, ad valorem, according to the size and style of the letter. • i • j 

This is one of the most inf anions jobs ever heard of in tariff legislation, and 
bears upon its face the handiwork of the “ Type Ring.’ This Type 
sociation of some dozen type founders, who meet together and arrange to how great 
an extent they will “cinch” the printers every year. There is no competition among 
them, for each has his own field. They send out no travelers, solicit no orders, and 
keep their prices jnst low enough to exclude foreign makers. Now, however, having 
found that one foreign house on this coast was taking away the trade on this coast 
from one of the ring, who was formerly here (and which house has been capturing 
this trade, not by cutting prices, but by selling a good article), they are trying to get 
Congress to pass a prohibitory tariff bill. This is a direct onslaught on the printers 
of the Pacific States, and it is the duty of every printer to bestir himself and leave 

no stone unturned to beat the bill. j • -n j. 

There is one thing certain—if this outrageous bill should be passed it will cost 
the printers of this coast thousands upon thousands of dollars, whereas, should it be 
beaten, and the existing twenty-five per cent, taken oft, it would put thousands ot 
dollars into their pockets. The bill is merely framed to prevent the Scotch type 
foundry from continuing its business upon this coast, as it is the only foreign type 
foundry doing business in America. These gentlemen have spent large suir^ of 
money in establishing their business in this country, and pay nearly twenty thou¬ 
sand dollars into the public treasury every year, while their material is admitted to 
be the best made in the world. It is not right or fair that these gentlemen should 
be obliged to give up business, and that the hundreds of printers on this coast, and 
elsewhere, who have purchased their material, should be debarred from the anvan- 
tages they derive through trading with them, just because some ten or a dozen type 
founders, rivals in business, do not approve of it. 

Tlie only way to defeat this bill is for every publisher to write to their represent¬ 
atives in Congress without delay, and urge them to use their influence against that 
portion of the proposed tarift’. Let them all print in their papers their opinion of 
the measure, and The Mail will republish their united voice, and see that it is thus 
brought to the i)ersonal attention of every Senator and Representative. This, to¬ 
gether with the influence of the numerous Eastern papers that are urging the mat¬ 
ter, will surely have the eftect of defeating it; for we cannot imagine that any Con- 
greWman understanding it, would for one instant favor, far less give it his vote. 


From the San Jose Daily Mercury (San Jose, Cal.), February 10. 

Something Like a Monopoly. —In order to fully appreciate the truth of a prop¬ 
osition it must be brought directly home to one. There is a feature in the new tar- 
ift’ bill, now before Congress, that includes a monopoly that the American press 
would be doing an injustice to itself did it not go all lengths to defeat it by the full¬ 
est exposure of the scheme before it is finally sprung upon the people. It is known 
to the printing craft that a smali ring of American type founders have for years so 
monopolized the manufacture of tyiie as to be able to crowd upon the market an in¬ 
ferior article, at the most exorbitant of prices, and that the printers of the United 
States are completely at the mercy of these tyjie monopolists. So grinding has the 
monopoly become that several foreign type founders—notably Messrs. Miller & 
Richard, of Edinburgh, Scotland—have begun importing a superior and a cheaper 
quality of type, and have established agencies in this country for the sale of it. The 
new tariff upon ty^ie is simply the creature of the American type founders, who are 
anxious to drive their competitors out of the market, and hope to do it by the cre¬ 
ation of a duty upon tjqie that will practically prohibit the importation. Referring 
to the monopoly, the San Francisco Bulletin recently expressed some very sensible 
views upon it, as follows : 

“ The new tariff bill fixes the duty on news and book type at fifteen cents per 
pound, which is from forty to sixty per cent, ad valorem. The rate on job and fancy 
type is thirty cents per pound, which is from fifty tf) one hundred per cent, ad valo- 









THE DUTY ON TYPE 


31 


rem. The annual duties collected under the present rates do not exceed twenty 
thousaad dollars. Under the rates now proposed the duties would probably be pro¬ 
hibitory, a result which could only be desirable to the proprietors of the dozen type 
foundries in the United States. There are twenty thousand printing offices in this 
country, which employ not less than one hundred and twenty thousand men, against 
the seven hundred employed in the dozen type foundries. There is some competi¬ 
tion at present on the part of the Scotch type founders, who pay duties on their im¬ 
ports, and claim to sell a better article at the same prices as American tyjDe is sold. 
The tyj^)e foundries in this country have been doing well under the old tariff. It is 
quite evident that they do not need any additional protection. A tariff which cuts 
oft revenue is not desirable. The present tariff puts about twenty thousand dollars 
a year in the public treasury from the sale of foreign type. This competition is far 
more desirable than a prohibitory tariff. The latter, while it would cut off revenue, 
wmuld have the effect to increase further the price of type in this country, because 
all foreign competition would be shut out. The twenty thousand printing offices in 
the United States have considerable interest in the question. No doubt the type 
foTindries wmuld gain an important point by a prohibitory tariff. But would this 
private gain be of real benefit to the country ?” 


Prom The Harbey County News (Newton, Kansas), February 21. 

It seems that there is a clause in the new tariff bill which fixes the duty on 
news and book type at 15 cents a pound, which is from 40 to 60 per cent, ad valorem, 
and on job and fancy type at 30 cents a pound, which is from 50 to 120 per cent. 
ad valorem. The present price of type is larger than is necessary for a fair profit, 
and to do anything by national legislation which wmuld advance this price would 
meet with decided opposition from the press of the country. The movement has 
been originated, and is being backed by the “ type ring.” 


From The Cambria Freeman (Fbensburg, Pa.) Friday, February 22. 

The effort which is being made by the owners of the ten or twelve type found¬ 
ries in this country to engraft an amendment on the tariff bill now before Congress, 
increasing the present duty on type of 25 per cent, ad valorem to a specific duty of 
15 cents per pound on book and news tyj^e, and to 30 cents on job and fancy type, 
ought to be resisted by every printer and publisher in the country. The present 
duty brings into the treasury $20,000 per annum, but the proposed increase, which 
is prohibitory, would prevent the introduction of foreign type altogether, and give a 
complete monopoly of the business to a dozen or so of type founders. There are 
20,000 printing offices in this country, employing 120,000 compositors, whereas the 
type founders employ only about 700, most of whom are minors. We trust that 
the newspapers in this district will ventilate this proposed job of the type founders’ 
ring, so that Gen. Campbell, our member, will understand what they think about it, 
and give his aid in assisting to defeat the unjust measure. There should be no duty 
on type, inasmuch as cheap newspapers mean the cheap and universal education of 
the people, and to tax type is to levy a tribute on knowledge. 


From the Sandy Hill Herald (New York), February 21. 

Type Monopoly. —A few years ago, George P. Powell & Co., the well known 
advertising agents of New York, seeing the injustice of the type founders’ monopo¬ 
ly, made a manly effort to introduce foreign type into this country, but the powerful 
orUinization of a dozen tyi)e hmnders, “ stamped out” the attempt. The result is, 
the monopolist have everything their own way. Every printer in the United States 
—and there are 20,060 ju inting offices here, employing 120,000 men, against 700 









32 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


employed by the founders—knows to his cost that there is no article manufactured 
on this side of the Atlantic, that can suffer less from a healthy reduction of price 
than manufactured type. It is literally a gold mine to those engaged in it, 3’iid^ foi* 
the reason that foreign manufacturers are rigorously excluded from competition. 
Under the present tariff the government only realizes about $20,000 annually from 
this article. But it will not get even that sum if the new tariff the monopolists are 
working for, goes into effect. It fixes the duty on news and book type at 15 cents 
per pound, and on fancy type 30 cents. This would be simply equal to prohibition, 
and the printing offices would soon feel its effect by an “ advance all along the 
on type. “ Protection to home industry,” is well enough in its way, and is a cardi¬ 
nal principle of the Republican party, but where a few type makers, employing less 
than 1,000 men, are seeking to cripple 20,000 printing offices, with their 120,000 
employees, and deprive the Government of $20,000 annual revenue, besides, our 
Rei)resentatives in Congress should act intelligently, and see justice done. 


From the Lenox Time Table, February 22. 

As if printers had not enough with which to combat — delinquent subscribers, 
dead beat politicians, dead beat foreign advertisers, and all the list of other annoy¬ 
ances which beset a journalist, as well as the minor difficulties which are in the path 
of those who are following a more favorable calling—type founders and dealers have 
formed a ring and presented a petition to Congress for a new Tariff Bill, so that 
type imported wdll be subject to from fifteen to thirty cents per pound, and the 
object of which is clearly to put type up just so much. Prior to 1873 there was a 
tariff to that effect, and the consequence w'as, type was twenty per cent, higher than 
it ought to be. Printers throughout the United States have taken the matter in 
hand, and the consequence w'ill be that no duty will be imposed. There is no need 
of a duty, however, as the present price of type would indicate, and in this matter, 
as well as many others, if the manufacturers cannot compete with foreign parties 
they had better quit. 


From The Kansas Democrat (Topeka, Kansas), February 22. 

Type Rtng and Proposed Tariff.— There are twelve foundries in the United 
States. Representatives of each foundry meet annually to discuss the prospects of 
the future. Then and there they agree upon the prices of various lines of type for 
the coming year, and consider such other matters as may be of advantage to their 
business, and put money into the pockets of the proprietors. 

At a meeting of the type ring for 1878, it was arranged to have the present od 
valorem duty of twenty-five per cent, on imported type, changed to specific duties 
of fifteen cents per pound on news and book type, and thirty cents per pound on 
job and fancy type, which would advance the price of news and book type an aver¬ 
age increase of twenty-five cents on a dollar of present prices, and an average of fifty 
cents on a dollar of present prices of job and fancy types. That additional price 
paid by the printers for type material would be just that much money, by act of 
Congress, transferred directly from the labor of printers to the pockets of the twelve 
type foundries of the United States. We imagine something of the following dis¬ 
cussion by the Type-Ring when they met in solemn conclave in January, 1878 

1st Rep : Worthy father and brethren, since our last meeting, the business 

of the country has grown worse instead of better. The type foundries have suffered 
heavy losses by the poverty and inability of printers to pay for new type with which 
to embellish their papers, and to keep up job sorts, and to purchase new styles of 
fancy type which is being constantly brought into use. Something ought to be done 
to benefit the printers, who are being constantly imposed upon by the introduction 
of type, manufactured in Scotland, which type is by law permitted to be sold in 
this country by paying only twenty-five cents to the Government for every dollar’s 
worth of type they can sell to the American printers. I am told $20,0(X) is an- 







THE DUTY ON TYPE, 


33 


Dually paid by tlie Scottish manufacturers to our Government for the privilege of 
inundating the American market with Scotch made type. Here is a loss to home 
manufacturers of eighty thousand dollars per annum. Divide this sum between 
twelve type foundries, and it shows an average loss to each of $6,660.67. Unless 
this drain can be stopped, the type foundrymen will be ruined. I move that a Com¬ 
mittee one or more visit Washington, and secure a change in the tariff on imported 
type from twenty-five per cent, ad valorem to such specific duty as will secure Ameri¬ 
can foundries—the American market—against all possible competition.” 

2d Rep.: “lam in favor of the proposition. I suggest that the committee 
sent to lobby this measure through Congress express to the tariff committee and all 
friends of home protection, that this measure is one to build up American industries, 
and revive the now prostrate manufactories against the pauper labor of Europe. 
That the abandonment of American manufactories to the direct competition of 
Europe, will make type, presses, and other printing materials so cheap in this 
country, that the number of printing offices would be so increased that a ruinous 
competition would grow up among printers, and that the whole printing business 
will be in danger of being paralyzed, to the great detriment of not only printers, 
but will greatly interfere with the profitable manufacture of school books, to the 
detriment of education and all branches of business dependent thereon. I have too 
much confidence in our agents to suppose for a moment that their discretion will 
allow them to admit that the type ring has applied for this legislation, or will be in 
any way benefitted thereby. ” 

3d Rep.; “Surely, the increase of our incomes and profits, as proposed, is 
very desirable, and will add greatly to our present wealth; but is it possible for the 
representatives of the American people to be so blind as to not see through this 
sophistry, or so influenced b'y interest or prejudice as to levy such an enormous tax 
on the great body of printers of the United States, for the sole benefit of the dozen 
founders, which this body represents ? ” 

4th Rep.; “ I think that the last question maybe safely answered in the 
affirmative. More than one-half of the newspapers of the United States are the 
avowed advocates of the protection of home manufactories. These papers have 
great influence over their representatives in Congress. To be consistent these papers 
must advocate their cherished dogma of home protection. They will consider 
the tax on their business less injury to them than stultifying themselves by admit¬ 
ting that any specfic tax which extracts money from the profits of their labor to 
swell the profits of type manufacturers is either unjust or unprofitable.” 

Fortified with these arguments and considerations the type ring have ventured 
to importune Congress to levy direct taxes on the profits of newspaper and job 
printing establishments over the whole land, with a view to creating a still greater 
monopoly than they already enjoy, with the privilege of extorting such prices for 
their type as they may deem expedient. 

We do not know what the sentiments of Hon. Thomas Ryan, our Congressman, 
on this subject are, but will assure him that if he encourages the robbery of the 
printers of his district, he will be likely to meet with a cool indorsement when he 
may require it. We have, however, a better opinion of our Representative, and 
expect him to come to the front and show himself a friend of equal rights, and 
equal protection to labor and industries of all kinds. 


From the Lyon County Times (Silver City, Nev.), February 9. 

The New Tariff. —The new tariff bill, says the San Francisco Bidletin, fixes 
the duty on news and book type at fifteen cents a pound, which is from 40 to 60 per 
cent, ad valorem. The rate on job and fancy type is 30 cents a pound, which is from 
50 to 100 per cent, ad valorem. The annual duties collected under the present 
rates did not exceed $20,000. Under the rates now proposed, the duties would 
probably be prohibitory, a result which could only be desirable to the proprietors 
of the dozen type foundries in the United States. There are 20,000 printing offices 
in this country, which employ not less than 120,000 men, against the 700 employed 

3 








34 


THE DTTTY ON TYPE. 


in the dozen type fonndries. Tliere is some competition at present on the 2 :)art of 
the Scotch type founders, who pay duties on their imports and claim to sell a better 
article at the same prices as American type is sold. The type fonndries in this 
country have been doing well under the old tariff. It is quite evident that they do 
not need any additional protection. A tariff which cuts off revenue is not desirable. 
The present tariff puts about ^20,000 a year in the public treasury from the sale of 
foreign type. This competition is far more desirable than a prohibitory tariff. The 
latter, while it would cut off revenue, would have the effect to increase further the 
price of type in this country, because all foreign competition would be shut out. 
The 20,000 printing offices in the United States have considerable interest in the 
question. No doubt the type foundries would gain an important point by a prohibi¬ 
tory tariff. But w'ould this private gain be of real benefit to the countr}'’ ? 


Prom the Daily Evening Herald (Stockton, Cal.), February 11. 

Peeaching vs. Practice.— It is always desirable to have an expounder of any 
particular policy practice the precepts which he preaches. Unfortunately, such con¬ 
sistence is rarely found. A glaring instance of inconsistency is furnished by our 
morning contemporary, in an article favoring a prohibitory tariff on type, in order, 
under the plea of fostering home industries, to i)lace the 20,000 printing offices in 
the country, and the 120,000 persons directly or indirectly obtaining their livelihood 
by the use of type, entirely within the control of twelve type foundries. The Type 
Founders’ Association have had a clause inserted in the new Tariff Bill raising the 
duty on type between 50 and 120 per cent., and our contemporary applauds the 
movement. In 1873 the duty was reduced 20 percent., and now there is foreign 
competition. To show how well foreign competition works we may simply instance 
a single transaction. When our contemporary put on a new dress the foreign com¬ 
petition furnished by the Scotch Type Foundry Agency at San Francisco, enabled 
it to get a dress worth ^1,100 for the very reasonable sum of about $700. Our con¬ 
temporary at that time did not practice the principles it advocated this morning nor 
lend its influence to build up a home industry, notwithstanding it purchased an in¬ 
ferior quality of American type at less than sixt 3 ^-three per cent, of the schedule 
rates. Our contemporary’s ‘‘ sympathies were seemingly strongest and most readily 
manifested toward those who make type the cheapest. ” One good practical illustra¬ 
tion is worth a whole column of editoral writing on the duties of citizens to patron¬ 
ize home industries, and there is no argument that can justify the delivering of the 
20,000 proprietors of printing offices in this country over to the tender mercies of 
twelve type foundries. The Tyj^e Founders’ Association would raise their prices in 
exact proportion to the tariff asked for in the bill, or else they would violate the 
rule of human conduct by which manufacturers will always sell for all they can get, 
and buyers will always buy as low as they can, just the same as our contemporary 
does. Our contemporary believes in protection in the abstract, but when it wants 
type, it will get it as cheap as possible, notwithstanding its ironical “ Bahs ! ” 


From the Daily Evening Herald (Stockton, Cal.), February 7. 

The Duty on type. — The new tariff bill which is now before Congress con¬ 
tains one feature that will claim the attention of all who are engaged in the business 
of printing. This bill proposes to fix the duty on news and book ty|ie at fifteen 
cents a pound, which is a tariff of from forty to sixty j^er cent, according to the size 
of the type, and a duty of thirty cents a pound on job and fancy type, a tariff of 
from fifty to one hundred per cent. This feature of the new tariff bill brings out in 
stronger light than almost any other, the gross injustice of the policy of protection 
which protects a class and oppresses the masses, or consumers. There are in the 
United States probably less than a thousand i)ersons who are engaged directly and 
indirectly in the manufacture of tyi)e. These i)ersons are asking for special legisla- 








THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


35 


tion in their interest, which will impose an unjust and hea^y burden upon not less 
than 120,000 persons who obtain their livelihood /lirectly and indirectly from the 
use of t}q>e after it is laid in the printing offices. The annual duties collected on 
importations of type now amount to $20,000, and the tariff that this bill imposes is 
so great that importation would practically be stopped. The Government would 
thus be the loser, but other results would follow which would materially cripple a 
business that is not by any means too lucrative at present. The home type founders 
would not hesitate to put up their prices to the full extent of the tariff levied. 
While there are less than 1,000 persons engaged in the manufacture of type, there 
are 20,000 printing offices to be supplied. There can be no justice in making this 
class of people contribute to swell the coffers of the type founders. It is generally 
conceded that foreign type, and particularly the Scotch type, is superior in style 
and durability to the type that is made in the United States, or at all events, to the 
type that is made on this coast, or that finds its way hither. That the business of 
making t 5 q)e does not need the protection of from forty to one hundred per cent, 
duty it may be well enough to state that it has been tripled in San Francisco within 
the last five years, with the present rates of tariff. Where there was only one type 
foundry five years ago there are now three, and all report that their business is on 
the increase. Be that as it may, it certainly is evident that a system of tariff that 
would cut off revenue simply for the sake of enabling the twelve or fifteen pro¬ 
prietors of type foundries that are now established here, to make from fifty to one 
hundred per cent, more profit on their wares is not only unjust to the army of 120,- 
000 persons who are engaged in ‘Hhe art preservative of arts,” but it is not a pru¬ 
dent financial measure for the Government to adopt. 


From the Liberal Democrat (La Crosse, Wisconsin), February 21. 

We believe in the freest of free trade principles, and have no doubt that the 
lockout policy of the United States tariff laws, has been of infinite damage to the 
country. It needs no departure, therefore, from our established creed, to enable us 
to characterize the proposed tariff’ upon type as outrageous, and a movement in the 
interests of ten or twelve type manufacturers, who will pocket the enhanced price 
that protection will allow them, at the expense of the twenty thousand printing 
establishments of the land, whose interests are in the broadest sense, the interests 
of the people, for the printer is a public servant, and any injustice to him, is a tax 
on intelligence, and a wrong that in its effects will reach far beyond his immediate 
patronage. Mr. Wood’s new tariff bill will get but a cold support from the people, 
if his increase in the tax on type is a sample of its liberalized provisions. 


From the Los Angeles Daily Star, Saturday, February 23. 

And now the press must come in for its share of cinching under the odious sys¬ 
tem of government “protection.” It does seem to us that our National Legislature 
is so harnessed with a crab-fashion of progress backwards, that it is possessed with 
a kind of lob-sided locomotion, and cannot legislate like wise men. The proposal to 
amend the tariff in the interest of a few type founders, is simply shameful, because 
it is a tax upon knowledge. It is proposed to levy a duty of fifteen cents per pound 
on foreign book and newspaper type, which is equivalent to from forty to sixty per 
cent, ad valorem; and to impose thirty cents per pound upon fancy type, which is 
equal to from fifty to one hundred per cent, ad valorem. This is injustice in the 
highest extreme. There are about a dozen type founders in the United States. 
There are some 20,000 printing offices, employing some 200,000 men and women. 
These must all be taxed to support a dozen American manufacturers of type. The 
proposed tariff therefore is obnoxious in the extreme, because it is a tax both upon 
the bread and butter of these 200,000 men and women, as well as a tax upon know¬ 
ledge. We think that instead of such a tariff, it would be better to reduce the tax, 







36 


f 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


Our Government policy was based originally upon broad and liberal principles. It 
has ever been our boast that knowledge is free. The press and book publishers are 
the agents through which learning is disseminated, and if our Government now 
turns in the face of this principle and imposes this unjust tax, it will be a crying 
shame. The tariff generally presents many ocbous features, but none more so than 
this, and it ought to be expunged from the national statute books. Protection has 
ever worked unjustly upon the masses, and in the interests of the few. In the lan¬ 
guage of the Oakland Times: “ The proposed tariff on type is a job. It is put up 
by the American type founders. Pass this tariff bill and it will be worse than it 
ever has been before. Let this big job die still-born. Let every publisher on the 
coast contribute to lay it peacefully to sleep under the daisies.” 


From the Free Press (San Marcos, Texas), Saturday, March 2. 

The publishers and printers of the Pacific Coast are asking their brethren this 
side of the Mountains to join with them in memorializing Congress against the pass¬ 
age of the new Tariff Bill, so far as it relates to type, upon which it proposes to put 
a duty of from fifteen to thirty cents a pound, which would amount to prohibition 
of the imported article and the enriching of a few type manufacturers at the expense 
of printers and publishers. A put-up job, no doubt. As a consequence the price 
of newspapers would be enhanced, and the general dissemination of information 
through their influence be restricted. We are heartily with this movement of our 
Western brethren. It is eminently right and proper, and we trust Congress will 
give due heed to it. 


From the Gleaner and Advocate, March 6. 

The printers and publishers of San Francisco are actively engaged in an efiort 
to defeat the proposed imposition of a prohibitory duty on foreign type, thus leaving 
American printers at the mercy of American type-founders. Their effort is a good 
one. While the comparatively small number of type-founders in this country 
should of course be encouraged, there is no reason why the 20,000 printing offices 
should be made to suffer. The tariff of 25 per cent, ad valorem is sufficiently high 
for ample protection to tyjie manufacturers; anything above that is an injury to an 
important business interest. Petitions against the proposed increase of duty are 
going into Congress from all parts of the country, and ought to have weight in shap¬ 
ing legislation. 


From the Golden Era, (San Francisco, Cal.) Saturday, February 9. 

A Blow at Popular Education.— Even the poor printer is made the victim 
of the national characteristic — monopoly. We have rings and rings and combina¬ 
tions and monopolies. Newspaper publishing seems to be the only business in 
which there is yet competition. Even type, the printer’s implement of labor, is 
gathered within the coils of the monopoly anaconda. The tariff duty on foreign 
manufactured t 5 q)e has hitherto offered such bountiful protection to the twelve type 
manufacturers of the United States that they have amassed vast fortunes. But 
these dozen gentlemen, not content with the protection that has made them rich at 
the expense of printers and publishers, have gone into Congress with an amendment 
to the tariff which, should it become a law, will prohibit the introduction of foreign 
manufactured type and give twelve type makers the right to manufacture and sell at 
their own price the material used by 120,000 men. The existing duty on type is 
twenty-five per cent, ad valorem. The proposed tariff fixes the duty at fifteen cents 
per pound on book and news type, or from thirty-three to eighty per cent, ad valo¬ 
rem, and thirty cents per pound on job and fancy, or from fifty to one hundred 
per cent, according to the size of the type. If the increase of duty receives the 
endorsement of Congress, the importation of type is simply prohibited, and the 










THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


37 


20,000 printing offices, and the 120,000 printers of the country are forced to pur¬ 
chase their type from twelve type founders who have entered into a compact to cause 
an advance of tlie duty on type to a figure that will prohibit its introduction, and 
thus secure to themselves an unobstructed monopoly of the type business of the 
whole United States. * The present duty is so heavy that the Government derives 
but $20,000 per annum from its tariff on type. The proposed tariff amounts to 
total prohibition and means that no tarifi' shall be realized from type, and that 
120,000 type users shall be placed at the mercy of a monoply composed of twelve 
type manufacturers. When our Representatives in Congress realize these facts, and 
also learn that the total number of employees (most of whom are children) in all the 
type foundries of the United States does not exceed 700, it will be strange, indeed, 
if they do not at once rebuke the trickster mouopolists who are attempting to de¬ 
ceive them, by an emphatic repudiation of the proposition to prohibit the importa¬ 
tion of type. Under the existing tariff, 120,000 men are placed under tribute to a 
ring composed of twelve wealthy type makers. Shall the duty be so advanced that 
these twelve shall increase at will the tribute of the 120,000 ? There should be no 
duty on type. It is free in Germany, and in every other civililized land where edu¬ 
cation is the bulwark of civil liberty. The creation of a law in the least degree 
conflicting with the principle of free schools and universal education, which is the 
glory and the guarantee of a Republican form of government, is so obnoxious to the 
people of the United States that, as one man, they demand its expurgation from the 
nation’s statute books. 


Prom the Nokomis Gazette (Nokomis, Ill.), March 8. 

An efibrt is being made by the type founding ring to obtain an alteration of the 
existing tarifi', increasing the duty on foreign type, which is now already too high. 
That a combination of ten or twelve men, which is all that represent this interest, 
should be enabled to increase the cost to an excessive degree on the principal article 
used by thousands of master printers, is an outrage that should not be tolerated by 
the representatives of the people. The prices of type have not lowered in propor¬ 
tion to other articles used in the mechanical arts, and the American founders should 
not be enabled to still further increase their figures to the detriment of the follow¬ 
ers of the “art preservative.” 


From the Santa Rosa Democrat (Santa Rosa, Cal.), February 8- 

The New Tariff Bill. —We have not seen this new tariff bill in detail, but 
we infer from some extracts made from its provisions which have fallen under our 
notice, that it is not at all calculated to produce revenue and thus operate benefic¬ 
ially for the people, but that in some of its provisions it is formed particularly for 
the benefit of individual interests, among the most flagrant of which we may men¬ 
tion that clause relative to printing material, which evidently will, in its provisions, 
if the bill is passed with that clause in it, materially aid and sustain a combination 
of type founders in building up a monopoly in the manufacture of type, to the detri¬ 
ment of all new'spaper publishers and the reading public, while it will tend to cut 
off all revenue heretofore arising from that source. 

If, as we see it stated, this bill fixes a specific duty on news and book type at 15 
cents per pound, amounting to something like 40 to 60 per cent, ad valorem^ it is 
simply enacting a prohibitory clause, shutting out all competition and resulting in 
no benefit to the Government in the way of revenue. The rate on job and fancy 
type at 30 cents per pound would be a complete exclusion of importers, and would 
leave newspaper men aL the mercy of type founders, who would unquestionably ad¬ 
vance their prices for a poorer material in ratio with the advanced tarifi' rates, and 
thus subject purchasers to a necessity of paying twice as much, at the least calcula¬ 
tion, as it would otherwise cost them for a superior article of the same class of 
goods. 


/ 






38 


THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


We cannot, for the life of ns, see why it is that men entrusted with a manage¬ 
ment of the affairs of the people, should thus seek to discriminate, in measures of 
public policy, in favor of one class of people to the detriment of another. We 
care not who puts up the job for this class of legislation, or whether it affects our 
interests directly, as this does, or whether it 'bears upon the interests of other par¬ 
ties, there should be integrity enough, nerve enough, among those who are [sent to 
represent ns, to shut out all this special legislation in favor of individual interests. 
The tariff thus provided for is as much a subsidy, in fact, to the type founders, as 
would be the granting of broad acres to railroad companies or other corporations 
is contrary to the spirit of Democracy in favoring one class at the expense of other 
interests, and will prove a detriment rather than a benefit in the way of revenue. 


From the San Francisco Mail (San Francisco, Cal.), February 20. 

The Contemplated Type Tariff.— The new bill, which fixes the duty on news 
and book type at fifteen cents a pound, and on fancy type at thirty cents a pound, is 
one which should receive the careful consideration of our Congressmen before final 
action is taken upon the matter. It is clearly evident that the passage of any such 
bill would, in effect, be a prohibitory tariff, and as such, unquestionably an injus¬ 
tice to the large number of printing offices in the country. At present, as it is gen¬ 
erally known, the Scotch foundries are sending a better article to this market than 
can be made in America, and the competition, whilst bringing an important item to 
the revenue, tends very materially to keep the price of the home-made article down 
to its fair market value. A prohibitory tariff would necessarily work injuriously 
both ways—the present revenue, amounting to some twenty thousand dollars, would 
be lost to the country, and the price of American tjqie (competition being removed) 
would, as a natural consequence, be increased. The matter is one which very seri¬ 
ously interests every newspaper and printing ofhce in the United States, and we 
trust that our contemporaries will see the importance of offering up a protest on the 
subject. 

It would be extremely effective if the editors and proprietors of newspapers 
would send letters to the Congressmen and Senators from the respective States, 
showing the injustice of the contemplated type tariff. 


From the Daily Evening Post (San Francisco, Cal.), February 6. 

Taxing Knowledge.— The proposal to amend the tariff in the interest of a few 
type founders, involves the far larger principle of ‘ ‘ protection. ” As a tax upon 
knowledge, the proposal is necessarily obnoxious. It is progress backward, crab 
fashion, a very unsightly and lop-sided kind of locomotion, yet progress, neverthe¬ 
less. The dozen type founders in the United States have managed to get their 
special interests ‘‘protected” in the tariff bill. It is proposed to levy a duty of fif¬ 
teen cents per pound on foreign book and newspaper ty^ie, which is equivalent to 
from forty to sixty per cent, ad valorem; and to impose thirty cents per pound upon 
fancy type, which is equal to from fifty to one hundred per cent, ad valotem. In 
other words, a prohibitory tariff is proposed in the interest of a dozen American 
manufacturers of printing type. To illustrate the beauty and equity of the pro¬ 
tection” policy, as a whole, it is only necessary to state that the owners and man¬ 
agers of some twenty thousand printing offices, employing over one hundred and 
twenty thousand men and women, are to be specially taxed to increase the profits of 
a dozen type founders, employing not more than seven hundred persons all told. 
This illustrates the perfect fairness of protection, as embodied in a discriminating 
tariff’. What is true of tyqie founders and printers is equally true of every other 
branch of domestic manufactures. This tariff guarantees large profits to a few man¬ 
ufacturers at the expense of the great body of consumers. The printers stand, in 
their relation to the type founders, in the position of the citizen at large to the tar¬ 
iff’ as a whole ; but, being intelligent, and having the means of making their wishes 








THE DUTY ON TYl’E. 


30 


known, they are not inclined to submit to the wrong in silence. As a matter of 
I)ractical business, what does the proposed tariff* amendment amount to ? Simply to 
this ; The printers of the United States are to be compelled to buy inferior type, 
made in America, at such price as the type founders ask for it, or purchase a bet¬ 
ter article, the market value of which is arbitrarily enhanced by legislative enact- 
nient from forty to one hundred per cent. But this discrimination against the print¬ 
ing trade does not end here. The fact that a dress of Scotch news type, made of 
hard metal, 'will last one-third longer than a dress of soft American type, is known 
to every practical printer. IL follows, therefore, that the newspaj)er ^proprietors 
will be compelled to pay tribute in two ways to the American type founders; first, 
in the increased price which the tariff* would enable them to charge, and second, the 
more rapid depreciation of value in actual wear and tear of type, necessitating more 
frequent renewals. By this plan a large percentage of printers’ profits would find 
its way into the coffers of the type founders, who contribute very much less to the 
national wealth and dignity than the printers. We object to the proposed tax upon 
type as unnecessary and injurious. It will destroy the existing import trade in 
foreign type, which yields twenty thousand dollars yearly to the treasury, and must 
cripple the printing trade of the country. As a tax upon the spread of knowledge, 
in an indirect form, it is to be deprecated. We trust Congress will reject the pro¬ 
posal, and in amending the tariff* go in the direction of freedom for trade and man¬ 
ufacturing energy as far as practicable and consistent with revenue requirements. 


From the Gilroy Advocate (Gilroy, Cal.), February 9. 

In the revised tariff, just introduced to Congress, a reduction has been made in 
the import duty of foreign books, at the same time the duty on news and book type 
has been fixed at fifteen cents a pound, which is from forty to sixty per cent, ad val¬ 
orem^ and the rate on job and fancy type is thirty cents a pound—from fifty to one 
hundred per cent, ad valorem. This arrangement promises to cut like a two-edged 
sword into the business of j^ublishers throughout the country. To the first propo¬ 
sition there can be no special objection among those who believe in a free spread of 
knowledge, without check by taxation, but the second jDroposition, with the first in 
operation, can have but one eff'ect, namely ; the reduction of the profits of Ameri¬ 
can publishers. If material to furnish the twenty thousand printing offices in the 
United States is increased in value, as it necessarily will be, by the dozen existing 
type foundries, publishers will be compelled to make up for the extra expense by in¬ 
creasing the price of books, and all other work issuing from the press. We are of 
the opinion that foreign competition in type should be encouraged, and that a pro¬ 
hibitory tariff would be as much a tax on knowledge as an extra tariff on foreign 
books. 

- *- 

From the Sunday Chronicle (San Francisco, Cal.), February 10. 

Now, as to the matter (ff printing type. The existing tariff is twenty-five per 
cent, ad valorem. It is not (piite, but nearly prohibitory. Some sizes and qualities 
of foreign-made type can still be imported at a profit. It is jjroposed by the House 
Committee of Ways and Means, in their modified tariff* bill, to put an end to this in 
the interest of the nine great American type foundry establishments, who, like the 
iron-masters, will not be satisfied with anything less than a complete monopoly, 
which, by the aid of outrageous law, will enable them to charge just such prices as 
they please, and force the American printers to pay them. The new bill proposes 
si)ecific for ad valorem duty on type ; that is to say, fifteen cents per pound on news¬ 
paper and book type, which equals an ad valorem duty of thirty-three and a third to 
eighty per cent., according to the size of the type. Under such a tariff*not a pound 
of news or book tyi)e can be imported, and not a dollar of revenue will be collected. 
It is simply a premium levied on every ju’inter and reader in America, for the en¬ 
richment of a combination of nine American type founders. At an ad valorem duty 
of ten per cent, on foreign imports of type of the quality used in this paper, it would 




40 


THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


cost say S3,500 for a new dress for the Chronicle, but with a tariff like ^e one pro¬ 
posed in force it will cost 33^ to 40 per cent, more, or about $4, <60 for the new out¬ 
fit. It is a tax of $1,260 levied on the Chronicle, whereof not one dollar goes into 
the Federal treasury, but all of it into the pockets of this American combination 
monopoly of type founders. At an ad valorem duty of ten per cent the Government 
would get $350 in revenue, and the Chronicle would save $910; but the nine com¬ 
panies would cease to be the grinding monopoly they aim to be, and their lobby and 
Congressional agents would lose their fees. 


From The Daily Examiner (San Francisco, Cal.), February 5. 

The Tariff on Type.— The tariff schedule reported by the Congressional Com¬ 
mittee on Ways and Means contains a few oppressive features^ Conspicuous among 
these is the dutv upon foreign-made type imported into the United States. It pro¬ 
poses to increase the duty, ^vhich is already twenty-five per cent, ad valorem, to a 
specific duty of fifteen cents per pound on news and book type, or an average of tit¬ 
ty per cent., and to thirty cents per pound on job and fancy type, or an average ot 
eighty per cent. If this proposition shall be passed into a law it will work injustice 
and oppression to the newspaper and job printing offices of this whole coast. There 
are altogether from four to five hundred printing establishmeiiLs on this side of the 
Rocky Mountains, in which are employed fully ten times as many hands, ihree- 
fourths of these establishments use the imported type on account of its superiority 
to any other, and some attention ought to be paid to Their interests and wishes. We 
think that instead of increasing the duty on type, it would be much better to reduce 
it and to make it little more than nominal. To advance it agreeably to the pro¬ 
posed figure will be almost equivalent to prohibiting its importation into the coun¬ 
try. The duty on type is higher in this than it is in any other country in the world. 
It is much like a tax upon knowledge. And we hope the press of the ^ast gener¬ 
ally will take up the subject and join in urging upon the Senators and Representa¬ 
tives and Delegates from the Pacific States and Territories the importance of having 
this most extortionate proposed duty on type defeated in Congress. It ought to be 
done. 


From The Argonaut (San Francisco, CaL), February 9. 

It behooves every newspaper, book and printing establishment in the country 
to give immediate and earnest attention to that rascally featuie of the new taiiff 
bil^ intended to virtually prohibit the importation of foreign type. The bill fixes 
the’duty on news and book type at fifteen cents per pound, which is from forty to 
sixty per cent, ad valorem. The rate on job and fancy type is thirty cents per 
pound, which is from fifty to one hundred per cent, ad valorem. The annual duties 
collected under the present rate did not exceed twenty thousand dollars, and it is 
difficult to find a motive for the prohibiting rate, unless it has been suggested—as 
it probably was—by our own type founders, who are fearful of foreign competition 
even with the tariff added. It is, therefore, to their interest to shut foreign-made 
type out altogether. Its sale has interfered with their combination to keep up the 
prices and parcel out territory. For example, it is the custom for the type-found¬ 
ers to meet yearly and discuss the prospects and condition of their customers. At 
these meetings the price of type is settled upon, the periods of credit fixed, and ter¬ 
ritory assigned each founder, with the proviso that they shall interfere as little as 
possible with each other’s trade. The introduction lately of Scotch type, better in 
every way than any manufactured in this countiy, has had the effect, at least on this 
coast, of keeping the prices of the combination pretty well regulated. The favor 
with which the new article has been received is an e^ddence to the type founders of 
this country that, unless they furnish as good type for the same price, their business 
will suffer. So indeed it will, unless the importation of the better and cheaper type 
is prohibited by the present outrageous tariff. Given the present tariff, which is 
twenty-five per cent., and the foreign makers will not only hold their own, but will 





THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


41 


keep home prices in check. Make the tariff prohibitory, and up goes the price of home- 
manufactured type at once. As there are twenty thousand printing offices in this 
country, employing one hundred and twenty thousand men, against the capital and 
say seven hundred employes of a dozen type founders, it is very easy to be seen 
where the burden of the proposed tariff will fall. If it is for the greatest good of the 
greatest number that the law operates, we say let the tariff remain as it is, save the 
twenty thousand dollars duty to the country, and allow the foreign-manufactured 
type to protect the printers and publishers against the type founders. 


From the Union Democrat (Sonora, Sonora County, California), 

February 16. 

Proposed Tariff on Type.— It is late in the day for a progressive government 
like that of the United States to go backward and give force to laws that in effect 
prohibit the people from enjoying the requirements for educational advancement 
that are enjoyed by other enlightened countries. A protective tariff may or may 
not be a wise law for our country; we believe it is not, that our people can success¬ 
fully compete with the world and at the same time preserve the dignity of labor. 
The direct effect of such protection is to create and sustain monopolies. A type 
ring has put up a job for the purpose of wholesale plundering under the name of 
law. A few days since a proposed amendment to the tariff was presented in the 
House of Representatives, to place a duty of fifteen and thirty cents a pound on 
type, for the benefit of about a dozen foundries in the country. This imposition, if 
not defeated, will result in an average increase of about eighty per cent, on present 
prices, affecting every printing office in the land and every man, woman and child 
that has use for a newspaper or a book. Less than a thousand persons are em¬ 
ployed in making type, while many more than a hundred thousand are employed in 
their use. Is it just so few shall be guaranteed a monopoly at the expense of so 
many ? The revenue derived last year from an ad valorem, duty of 25 per cent, 
amounted to $20,000. Under the proposition now pending it will amount to 
nothing ; the founders of this country, protected by such we may say infamous pro¬ 
hibition, will have the printers at their mercy, which will be felt in every city, town 
and hamlet. Rather than taxing, the Government should abolish all duty on type, 
put it on the free list, where of right it ever should be. The very idea of placing a 
duty on the means required to disseminate information, is contrary to a sense of 
right, and should not be tolerated by those who make the laws. Articles of luxury, 
not necessities, are subjects for a tariff'—none other should be protected, much less 
prohibited. This outrageous attempt must be defeated. The infiuence of the 
press will certainly be directed to that end. If its power cannot stop so bad an 
imposition on the country, then verily have we all been given over to the 
Philistines. 


From the Ukiah City Press (Ukiah City, Cal.), February 15. 

A Prospective Monopoly.— If America is to become a paradise for monopo¬ 
lists, where is the poor man to seek shelter or fair dealing ] In this “ glorious land 
of freedom,” who are the free ] And will there never a spirit rise up and cry 
mercy for the man of toil, to loosen the screws of extortion and destroy the rack of 
oppression ] Shall it be always that laws will be so enacted and enforced that one 
or two may be benefited to the injury of thousands ] 

A new tariff bill has been before Congress (we know not how recently) which 
puts such high duty on foreign-made type as to exclude it from use in the United 
States. The object is to give American type founders control of the whole trade, 
and thereby enable them to put the most unreasonable prices upon their types, as 
they would have nothing to fear from foreign competition. The San Francisco 
Bulletin of the 2d says of it: 

“The new tariff bill fixes the duty on news and book type at 15 cents per 





4‘2 


THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


l)oiiiid, whicli is from 40 to 00 per cent, ad valorem. The rate on job and fancy 
types is 30 cents per pound, which is from 50 to 100 per cent, ad valorem. The an¬ 
nual duties collected under the present rates did not exceed f20,000. Under the 
rates now proposed, the duties would probably be prohibitory, a result which could 
only be desirable to the proprietors of the dozen type foundries in the United States. 
There are 20,000 printing offices in this country, which employ not less than 120,000 
men, against the 700 employed in the dozen type foundries. There is some compe¬ 
tition at present on the part of the Scotch type founders, who pay duties on their 
imports and claim to sell a better article, at the same prices as American type is 
sold. The type foundries in this country have been doing well under the old 
tariff. It is quite evident that they do not need any additional protection. A tariff 
which cuts off' revenue is not desirable. The present tariff' puts about ^20,000 a 
year in'the public treasury from the sale of foreign type. This competition is far 
more desirable than a prohibitory tariff, for the latter, while it would cut off reve¬ 
nue, would have the eff’ect to increase further the price of type in this country, be¬ 
cause all foreign competition would be ^shut out. In this question the 20,000 
printing offices in the United States have much interest. No doubt the type foun¬ 
dries would gain an important point by a prohibitory tariff. But wM>uld this pri¬ 
vate gain be of real benefit to the country 

The latter question of the Bulletin can be safely answered in the negative. It 
would not. The tendency would be not only to cut off $20,000 of revenue, l)ut 
crush out of existence many small offices now doing a good living business—offices 
conducted by men who are professional printers legitimately trying to rise in their 
profession, afc which they may have served a lifetime or a long apprenticeship, and 
who know nothinoc else and care for nothing else. The dozen foundries in the 
United States could readily adopt a scale of prices so high that none but large es¬ 
tablishments could make a living, and consequently all job work would be con¬ 
trolled by them. It is seriously to be hoped the bill will never become a law. It 
is both unreasonable and unjust. Every printer in the land should lend his voice 
to crush it ; and surely the voices of industrious, intelligent men are more potent in 
justice’s sake than the type founder’s for wealth and monopoly’s sake. Besides, 
the foreign-made tyi)e (Scotch) is the most durable and best know'ii to the profes¬ 
sion, and for this reason, more than any other, the type founders of this country 
are naturally very anxious for the tariff bill to become a law. And if it should, 
what would become of the printers of the Pacific C(:>ast, with the greater portion of 
the trade in the hands of Painter & Co. ? Deliver us from further dealing wdth 
that firm. It may be all right, and may do for some, but there is nothing unnatu¬ 
ral in a burned child dreading the fire. We hope every paper on the Pacific slope 
wdll offer objections to this bill, and give their support to an establishment that 
deals fairly and sells the best type in the wmrld—Miller & Richard. 


From the Seymour Record (Seymour, Conn.), March 8. 

Tariff on Ty^pe.— Now as to the matter of printing type, the existing tariff is 
25 per cent, ad valorem. It is not quite but nearly prohibitory. Some sizes and 
qualities of foreign- made type can still be imported at a profit. The new' bill i)ro- 
poses specific for ad valorem- duty on type ; that is to say, 15 cents per pound on 
new'spaper and book type, which equals an ad valorem duty of 33 to 80 per cent., 
according to the size of the type. Under such a tariff, not a pound of news or book 
type can be imported, and not a dollar of revenue will be collected. It is simply a 
premium levied on every printer and reader in America, for the enrichment of a 
combination of nine American type founders. As an ad valorem duty of 10 per 
cent, on foreign imports of type of the quality used in this paper, it wmuld cost say 
$3500 for a new dress (new tyi)e) ; but wdth a tariff like the one proposed in force, 
it will cost 33to 40 per cent, more, or about $4700 for the new' outfit. It is a tax 
of $1260 levied on the new's[)aper, w'hereof not one dollar goes into the Fedeial 
Treasury, but all of it into the pockets of this American combination monopoly of 
type founders. At an ad ndorem duty of 10 per cent., the Government w'ould get 





THE DUTY ON TYTE. 


4:; 


$350 in revenne, and the newspaper would get $910; but the nine companies would 
cease to be the grinding monopoly they aim to be, and their lobby and Congres¬ 
sional agents would lose their fees.—/Savt- Francisco Chronicle. 

As there are 20,000 printing offices in this country, employing 120,000 men, 
against the capital and say 700 employes of nine type foundries, it is very easy to 
be seen where the burden of the proposed tariff will fall. 


From the Foot-Hill Weekly Tidings (Grass Valley, California), 

February 16. 

The new Tariff Bill, before Congress, is in the main an improvement on any pre¬ 
ceding it ; but there is one clause which must have been surreptitiously inserted, 
which creates most assuredly a monopoly—protecting only a few at the expense of 
many. The bill as first prepared reduced the tariff on type from 25 to 20 per cent, ad 
vedorem, which would have fully protected our type founders and yet given foreign 
founders opportunity to compete and contribute to our revenue. Recently an amend¬ 
ment has been tacked on, through the combined efforts of the ring of American tyije 
founders, making the tariff on type entirely prohibitory—amounting to from 50 to 
120 per cent, ad valorem. This for the purpose of benefiting twelve type founding 
establishments, employing not to exceed 700 hands, most of whom are children, 
and placing 20,000 printing offices, employing 120,000 men, at their mercy—for 
Scotch competition has recently brought the price of type down and given us a 
much better article. Congress should at once expunge this amendment. 


From the Hartford Sunday Journal (Hartford, Conn.), Feb. 24. 

Fernando Wood is working in the interests of the type founders’ ring by adv(j- 
cating that the duty on ty[3e shall be from two to live times as much as it is now. 
It is about time that that ring was smashed to smithereens, thus enabling poor 
people to get their reading matter for less money. 


From the San Joaquin Valley Argus (Merced, Cal.), Feb. 16. 

Tariff Tinkering — The Scheme Undemocratic —A High-handed Swin¬ 
dle.— The new Tariff bill now before Congress fixes the duty upon news and book 
type at fifteen cents per pound, and upon job and fancy ty[)e at the rate of thirty 
cents per pound, the effect of which cannot be otherwise than to prohibit the im¬ 
portation of type from foreign countries, and thereby prevent competition by the 
Scotch, German and other type founders in the markets of the United States. Of 
course where the duty upon an article or a class of articles is so high as to prohibit 
the importation and sale thereof in our country, the revenue that would be derived 
therefrom under the operation of a “ tariff for revenue ” is cut off from the Govern¬ 
ment, and the profits all go into the hands of the manufacturers of the United 
States, Avho, by combining, are enabled to keep prices up to a figure that in the 
matter above referred to is absolutely oppressive to newspaper, book and job print¬ 
ers, driving book printing from our country to England and otherwise discouraging 
the business of printing in our country. 

While we believe that the tariff system of our Government is not the best plan 
that could be adopted as a means of raising revenue for the support of Government, 
and that all duties upon imported articles of general use by or necessary to the 
working classes are oppressive to the industry of the country, yet, as it has been 
the policy of the Government from its beginning to the present time, and that tariff' 
“rings ” have become so powerful that a radical change of the system cannot be 
hoped for at present, the next best thing for the working people of the country is a 
tarijf for reoenne onlij, which for many years was the favorite doctrine of that part 







44 


thp: duty on type. 


# 


of the Democracy of the Union who rejected the free trade views ennnciated by 
John C. Calhoun, and for many years advocated by other Southern statesmen. 

We have ever believed that our tariff system was a cheat and delusion, an indi¬ 
rect tax upon the industrious laboring classes of the country—exempting the pro¬ 
perty of the country from its due proportion of the expenses of supporting the Gov¬ 
ernment, which protects it to its owners. Under the operation of the present 
tariff, the man who labors for a dollar a day, a widow upon a small homestead, a 
S3wing-girl dependent upon her daily toil for support, pay as much tax upon arti¬ 
cles of necessity as does the millionaire, while the latter’s money, palatial residence, 
broad acres, bank, railroad, mining and other stocks and properties contribute no¬ 
thing toward the support of the general government. 

Of course this tariff system fosters the interests of large capitalists, while it 
oppresses the working classes, who are the wealth-producers of the country in time 
of peace, and the mainstay of the Government in time of war, as they not only pro¬ 
duce the supplies for the army and navy, but also furnish the soldiers to fill the 
ranks of the one and man the vessels of the other. When the Congress of the 
United States ceases to pander to the interests of the rich, and seeks to render jus¬ 
tice to the industrial classes, to whom the country is indebted for all of its present 
power, glory, and wealth, we will hear no more of labor strikes, labor i*iots, and 
organizations of working men for the purpose of prohibiting the ii. flux of Chinese 
and other competing laborers from foreign countries. 


From the Wolverine Citizen (Flint, Mich.), March 9. 

Tax on Foueign Type. —At present, imported type pays an ad valortm duty 
of 25 per cent. That this affords ample protection to American type founders 
would seem to be demonstrated by the fact that the revenue to the Government 
from this source, for the year 1877, amounted to less than $20,000. In the bill for 
revision of the tariff, now under consideration by a Committee of Congress, we 
learn it is proposed to place a duty of fifteen cents per pound on plain tjqDe, and 
thirty cents per pound on job and fancy type. This would be equivalent to a tax 
(^f 50 to 120 per cent, ad valorem, according to size and style of letter—meaning 
prohibition pure and simple. There are not over a dozen type founders in the 
United States, and their business relations to each other are such as to preclude 
competition and invite combination. If foreign manufactured type were shut out, 
the entire 20,000 printing offices of the United States would be at the absolute 
mercy of those twelve type foundries, whose proprietors could compel the printers 
to pay what prices they pleased to fix for types. It would operate as a tax upon 
knowledge and education, by increasing the cost of books and newspapers, in which 
light it is not a surprising emanation of Fernando Wood’s Committee of Ways and 
Means of the present House of Representatives, where the proposition originates. 
It strikes an indirect blow at “the bane of Democracy.” Believing, as we do, in 
the policy of a reasonable protection to foster American manufacturers of all kinds 
that need it, we do not object to the present duty on types ; but if any change be 
made, let it be reduced rather than increased. A prohibitory tarifi' would have but 
the effect of creating an irresponsible and absolute monopoly. 


From the Castroville Argus (Castroville, Monterey County, Cali¬ 
fornia), February 16. 

The new tarifi' bill proposes to put a duty of 15 cents per pound on news and 
book type and 30 cents per pound on job and fancy type. The efiect of such a duty 
on foreign type would be to prohibit its importation, leaving American type makers 
to monopolize the market and exact higher prices for their production than are 
now paid for a better article from abroad. Under the existing duty (25 per cent. 
ad, valorem) the amount collected on foreign type is $20,000 yearly, but should the 
proposed tarifi' bill pass, it would, by prohibiting importation, wipe out that sum 






THE DITTY ON TYPE. 


45 


from the present revenue receipts. In our view, the 20,000 printing establish¬ 
ments in the United States, which employ 120,000 men, are entitled to have their 
interests considered by Congress quite as much as the Type Founders’ Ring with 
their pay roll of 700 employes, and we are also of the belief that the present type 
duty, instead of being raised to the exclusive advantage of a few type manufactur¬ 
ers, ought to be lowered, if not entirely removed. 


From the Middlebury Register (Middlebury, Vermont), Friday, Feb¬ 
ruary 22. 

One of the pickpocket jobs, of which the proposed new tariff bill embodies so 
many, is the increased duty on imported type, which is a direct blow at one of the 
most important interests of the country. The only thing that keeps the price of 
type manufactured in this country within reasonable limits is foreign competition. 
But for this the type founders of this country would have been enabled to take hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of dollars annually out of the j^ockets of the printers to add to 
their own already swelling profits. The duty on type is now twenty-five per cent. 
ad valorem, and the new bill proposes to increase the rate on news and book ty|3e to 
fifty per cent., and on job and fancy type to over one hundred per cent. There are 
less than one thousand persons employed in type founding, while more than one 
hundred and twenty thousand are engaged in the printing business. This highly 
Democratic measure proposes to prohibit foreign competition in order that the dozen 
type founding establishments of the country may have the printers at their mercy. 
Every reading individual in this country is interested in seeing that this bill does 
not become a law. Cheap type means cheap newspapers and cheap books. The 
proposed bill is an outrageous tax upon education and intelligence. It is either an 
infamous job in the interest of a grasping ring, or a piece of haphazard fooling with 
a subject which the author of the bill knows nothing about. It is to be hoped the 
press of the country will take up the matter in earnest. 


From The Boston Journal (Boston, Mass.), Thursday Evening, 

February 21. 

And now comes up a ‘^ 3^)6 ring” which has manipulated the promoters of the 
new tariff and induced them to put a prohibitory duty upon type, which means that 
they may advance their scale of rates to suit their own interests. A merely nominal 
duty is all that is required, for no large orders would ever go abroad so long as the 
type founders are reasonable. The members of Congress from Massachusetts should 
look into this subject, for there is a pretty big cat under the meal. 


From The Chronicle (St. Joseph, Missouri), February 23. 

Type Manufacturers’ Ring. —The Stockton Daily Evening Herald directs 
special attention to one feature of the new tariff bill now before Congress as of par¬ 
amount interest to all who are engaged in the business of printing. This bill pro¬ 
poses to fix the duty on news and book type at fifteen cents per pound, which is a 
tariff of from forty "to sixty per cent, according to the size of the type ; and a duty 
of thirty cents a pound on job and fancy type, a tariff of from fifty to one hundred 
per cent. This feature of the new tariff bill brings out in stronger light than al¬ 
most any other one the gross injustice of the policy of protection which protects a 
class and oppresses the masses or consumers. There are in the United States prob¬ 
ably less than a thousand persons who are engaged directly and indirectly in the 
manufacture of type. These persons are asking for special legislation in their inter¬ 
est, which will inqR)se an unjust and heavy burden upon the not less than one hun- 









40 


t 


THE DUTY ON TYPE.' 


dred and twenty thousand persons who obtain their livelihood cUrectly and indi¬ 
rectly from the use of type after it is laid in the printing ofcce. The anmial duties 
collected on importations of type now amount to 5^20,000, and the tariff that this 
bill imposes is so great that importation would practically be stopped, ihe gov¬ 
ernment would thus be the loser, but other results would materially cripple a biisis 
ness that is not by any means too lucrative at present. The home type founder, 
would not hesitate to put up their prices to the full extent of the tariff levied- 
While there are less than one thousand persons engaged in the manutactiire ot type, 
there are twenty thousand printing offices to be supplied. There can be no justice 
in making this class of people contribute to swell the coffers of the type founders. 
There should be no duty on type. It is free in Germany, and in every other civil¬ 
ized land where education is the bulwark of civil liberty. The creation of a law in 
the least degree conflicting with the principle of free schools and universal educa¬ 
tion which is the glory and guarantee of a republican form of government, is so ob¬ 
noxious to the people of the United States that, as one man, they demand its ex¬ 
purgation from the nation s statute books. 


From the Mt. Carmel Democrat (Wabash County, Illinois), Feb¬ 
ruary 23. 

The new tariff bill it seems has been gotten up in the interest of a ring in one 
instance at least, and that is in the matter of duties upon type. It professes to 
place a duty of fifteen cents on every pound of newspaper and thirty cents on every 
pound of job type imported. This would simply mean the prohibition of the im¬ 
portation of type into the United States, since no firm could stand such a tariff 
The present tariff is high enough, and puts about twenty thousand dollars annually 
into Uncle Sam’s pocket, and Congress should see to it that this is not filched fiom 
the treasury by the proposed raise, which is an average of fifty per cent, on news 
and eighty per cent, on job type. 


From the White Pigeon Argus (White Pigeon, Michigan), 

February 23. 

The law makers of the United States, not content with helping railroad jobs, 
and banking jobs, are now talking of a duty on foreign-made news type of fifteen 
cents per pound, which is forty to sixty per cent, ad valorem, and on job and adver¬ 
tising type of thirty cents per pound, or from fifty to one hundred and twenty per 
eent ad valorem. This will be an eflectiial hy against the importation of foreign 
type and the home founders can, or rather will, add to the price of type, which is 
now one-half more than it should be, and thus fill their pockets at the expense of the 
poor newspaper men of this country. The present tariff puts about twenty thousand 
dollars every year into the treasury. But if this prohibitory tariff becomes a law 
not one pound of foreign type will be imported, thus making the United States 
twenty thousand dollars every year, and the American type founders the richer. 
Type now costs considerably more thaa it should. Cheap type means cheap books 
and papers. We hope this job will fall through. If the nation’s representatives 
see this matter in the right light, we are certain it will come to naught. Let every 
printer in the land agitate this subject, and refuse to support for re-election any 
representative who votes in favor of this infamous imposition. 


From the Elko Weekly Post (Elko, Nevada), February 16. 

A righteous movement has been inaugurated by the employing printers of the 
country against the proposed new tarifl' bill, as far as it relates to type. The press 
of the Pacific Coast is unanimous in condemning the measure, which is, without 










THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


47 


doubt, the result of a ’‘job” on the part of the “Type Ring.” For years printers 
have been at tlie mercy of the few type founders of the United States, who have 
grown rich at their expense. It is alleged that they are now trying to get a prohih- 
itory duty put on. The new tariff bill proposes to put a duty of fifteen cents per 
pound on news and book type, and thirty cents per pound on job and fancy tyjje. 
Tlie existing duty on type is twenty-five per cent, ad valorem. There should be 
no d'oty on type. The Golden Era justly says : “The proposed tariff amounts to to¬ 
tal prohibition, and means that no tariff shall be realized from type, and that 120,- 
000 type-users shall be placed at the mercy of a monopoly composed of 
twelve type manufacturers. When our representatives in Congress realize 
these facts, and also learn that the total number of enii)loyes (most of whom are 
children) in all the type foundries of the United States does not exceed seven hun¬ 
dred, it will be strange indeed if they do not at once rebuke the trickster monopo¬ 
lists who are attempting to deceive them, by an emphatic repudiation of the propo¬ 
sition to prohibit the importation of type. It is free in Germany, and in every 
other civilized land where education is the bulwark of civil liberty. ” We ask our 
representative in Congress, Hon. Thomas Wren, to give his aid in defeating the 
scheme of the type monopolists. 


From The Commercial Review (Quincy, Illinois), February 23. 

We do not recollect having noticed, in any of the Western newspapers, edito¬ 
rials on the subject of the new bill now before Congress, imposing a heavy tariff on 
foreign manufactured type. It is charged that the typefounders of America, who 
number but twelve firms, have united and are now endeavoring to carry through 
Congress the tariff bill referred to above, and it is claimed that should these type 
founders be successful, it will be the means of increasing the cost of type from fifty 
to one hundred and twenty per cent., according to the size and style of the type de¬ 
sired. Those who have figured on this matter claim that the proprietors of Ameri¬ 
can type foundries have all grown wealthy at the expense of the printers ; that they 
have combined to keep up prices, and such a thing as competition is unknown to 
them. Should the proposed tariff succeed it will be virtually a tax on education 
and intelligence, which is positively against the intentions of this Government, and 
in view of these brief facts it w()uld seem wise in our Congressmen to proceed delib¬ 
erately to slaughter the bill. 


From the Sacramento Daily Record-Union (Sacramento, Califor¬ 
nia), February 7. 

An Insidious Bit of Protection.— The theory of “protection to native indus¬ 
try ” has received a fresh illustration in a provision of the new tariff wliich has a 
special interest for newsi)aper publishers. The duty on news and book type is 
fixed at 16 cents per pound, or from 40 to GO per cent, ad valorem. The rate on 
job and fancy type is 30 cents per pound, which is from 50 to 100 per cent, ad valo¬ 
rem. These are in effect prohibitory rates, and there can be no doubt that they 
have been inserted at the instance of the type founders. There are, we believe, 
about a dozen type foundries in the United States, but it seems that they do not 
think themselves capable of competing with European manufacturers. For some 
time, indeed, certain Scotch manufacturers have been doing a good business in 
this country, on terms which are not creditable to their rivals. For these Scotch 
founders pay the duties on their own imports, and then sell a better article, at 
lower rates, than the American founders. There are, on the other hand, some 
20,000 printing offices in this country, employing about 120,000 men, against some 
700 men employed in the type foundries. Now the American type founders, not¬ 
withstanding that they have been doing an excellent business hitherto, propose that 
the 20,000 printing offices shall be given over to them as a spoil ; that the printers 
shall not be permitted to buy in the cheapest and best market, but that they shall 
1 h‘ c<>mi)elled to purchase all their type at home, at whatever prices the domestic 





0 


48 THE DUTY ON TYPE. 


monopolists may see fit to impose. For it of course follows that a j)rohibitory tariff 
has the effect of creating a mont)poly for the domestic founders, and it is perfectly 
certain that if they had a monopoly they would raise their prices. So it results 
that Congress is asked to plunder the 20,000 printers for the benefit of this dozen 
of type founders, and by the same stroke to cut off the revenue which the Govern¬ 
ment now derives from the importation of foreign type. The proposition is against 
public policy, impudent, and unjust, and the press generally will do well to take it 
into consideration—especially those journals which sing the praises of Protection 
when it affects any interest other than their own. 


From The Herald (Queen City, Missouri), February 22. 

All who are engaged in the printing business will feel a deep interest in the 
tariff bill now pending before Congress. The object of the bill is to increase the 
duty on type, and thus, by shutting off to a greater extent thai^ ever the foreign 
type manufacturers, place the entire business of furnishing all the type used by the 
twenty thousand printing establishments in this country in the hands of a dozen 
type foundries. 

Of course the only class benefited by the passage of such a bill—which in effect 
would really amount to an absolute prohibition of the sale in this country of type of 
foreign manufacture—would be these twelve type foundries, while the extra profit 
thus made by them would be drawn from the pockets of these printing houses and 
their one luindred and twenty thousand employes, amounting to hundreds of thous¬ 
ands of dollars every year. 

If the decision of this question is to be made entirely according to justice and 
public interest, it should not take long to tell which side of the scale is the heaviest, 
when on one side hangs not only the interests of one hundred and twenty thousand 
printers, but the means of diffusing cheap education to forty millions of people, 
against the bigoted claims of the proprietors of a dozen type foundries on the other. 


From the Eureka Republican (Eureka, Cal.), February 13. 

The Type Tax.— We have already expressed our disapproval of the attempt 
to lay an additional impost tax on type for the benefit of the few type foundries of 
this country. It is an endeavor on the part of the few to oppress the class of men 
who keep the mass of mankind in daily contact with the world through the medium 
of the press, and to prevent the dissemination of home literature throughout the 
land. All laws should be framed with a view of benefiting the greatest number, 
and the greatest number in this instance is emphatically all, for the man who is so 
far removed from mankind as to be beyond the reach of the newspapers of the day 
is a nobody. The bill before Congress is to place an impost of some fifteen cents 
per pound, which would give the American type founders a complete monopoly of 
the business and cut off the Government from all revenue from type importations. 
Thus the Government would stand in its own light, as well as in that of the whole 
people. We do not believe our legislators will do this. What should be done in 
the way of home protection is to lay a light ad valorem tax on importations, making 
it, if anything, lighter than at present, and if the few cannot then compete, let 
them retire. Type-making is not a national industry. We do not know of a 
dozen establishments in the whole country, and surely these few should not have a 
monopoly to the detriment of the reading public. 









From the Greenville Advocate (Greenville, Ala.), March 14. 

The New Tariff Bill. —One prominent feature of this hill, which is now be¬ 
fore Congress, calls forth the nnitecl denunciadon of the Press, and merits the at¬ 
tention of every citizen of this country, since it directly affects the interest of a 
large majority, and restricts the power of the newspaper as an educator. The pro¬ 
posed tariff increases the duty on book and news type from twenty-five per cent. 
aa ralorem to from fifty to one hundred per cent, ad talorem, regulated by the size 
and style of the letter. It is proposed in the interest of about one dozen type 
foundries in the United States, and against the interest of 8,000 printing offices, 
which employ 120,000 men, women, and children! There can be no show of jus¬ 
tice in making the publishers and printers of books and newspapers contribute thus 
to swell the profits of the type founders. Their business is already profitable 
enough to have made the name of the American type founder a synon}^!! for pros¬ 
perity, and, in most cases, for wealth. The gross injustice of thus virtually pro¬ 
hibiting the importation of superior foreign tyjye, thereby increasing the price of Am,er- 
icah type, and consequently American books, magazines, and papers, is too open a 
protection of a class, and an oppression of the masses, to receive the approval of 
the people with the exclusion of foreign type, which is the best, and the importa¬ 
tion of which has had the effect of regulating the prices of American type, a mo¬ 
nopoly of the business will follow, and not only destroy the revenue, the Government 
now enjoys from the foreign trade in type, but impose an unjust and grievous burden 
upon probably 200,000 or more persons who derive their living directly from the 
printing office, and indirectly become a grievance to thousands more. To bring the 
matter directly home to our Representatives in Congress, the proposed tariff will, if 
allowed to pass, force upon the Mobile Register, the Montgomery Advertiser, the 
Greenville Advocate, and upon every paper published in Alabama, a heavy tax 
every year, not to speak of the general pressure upon the trade in the whole coun¬ 
try. We trust that the Press in every State will unite in an appeal to their re¬ 
spective Representatives to use every means to defeat this bold effort of a private 
ring to cripple the printing industry. There should be, in fact, no duty on type. 
The great “art preservative of all other arts” should be untrammeled. It is free 
from any such restrictions in almost every other civilized land. Universal educa¬ 
tion is the bulwark of civil liberty, the guarantee of stability to a republican form 
of government, the pride of an enlightened people ; and as inconsistent as it is true 
is the fact that in this boastful land of freedom and equality, of protection and 
prosperity, the duty on type is already higher than it is in any country in the 
world. It is an insult to the intelligence of the people, and should be removed as 
an impediment to national progress. Outside of our own interest in the defeat of 
this measure, we pronounce it as obnoxious to the entire population, to whom the 
cheap newspaper and magazine have become a daily necessity. The Press should 
be sustained and protected by the Government as the free Teacher Preacher, the 
fellow-laborer and Missionary, wdiose high calling is to educate the masses and per¬ 
petuate the glory of the nation. We feel that it is a work of supererogation to ‘ 
present our vieivs upon this subject to the consideration of Col. Herbert, for we 
cannot imagine that a gentleman of his culture and patriotism would for a moment 
favor a law, or ignore the importance of defeating one, which thus openly restricts 
education, intelligent intercourse, and the circulation of good literature. On the 
contrary, we do not hesitate to assure our readers that no such measure will re¬ 
ceive the vote of our Representative. 









'•K*.V;,<jS-' ; .v....,..^.:. 


, .'5'v W^l" 



'■ BRi' 

■' ■ » 

V*' Tll'f •' i ■’ 


Vil •*■ ..» 



■'' ■. |VV 

V 

r ' ’ ’ 

■’a* „ ■' i 


0- 


0’-‘, 


■ ■•/ . . 

1 

' r 

.', ' 'v 

‘;^ W. .■ 

•‘ 

• .-‘•'ytf. 


’ 'vc . \ '■> 




'• , V.: 

1 


UL»** 1 ttt’ ^ “j'Vj' ■ ■'V -,■•■' ■ '■ * > t * ■• ' . * 3 % ^ \ '*^111, 

.* •■ . . ;■ ; ■ ‘ ■^' \ -V^ 

k <,. . I «','' ' . y■■■'t '. ■ )• .‘'> •' yA*~>uu 

, .. '*'( • V*- rlimA'l ■'?‘ ■'**' ‘'it / 

^:l 


cm 


4 .'*•'; s 








I®- •■ •' 


.•*A 4 ^ 



library of congress 







